About the workSongs of Jamaica

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Songs of Jamaica

Claude McKay · 1912

Original text in Jamaican Patois.

The Creole verse of a young Kingston policeman, written before his departure for Harlem.

Poetry · 52 parts · about 18 000 words · about 1 h 17 of reading

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Contents

  1. Songs of Jamaica1 min
  2. Preface5 min
  3. Quashie to Buccra2 min
  4. Me Bannabees1 min
  5. Lub O’ Mine1 min
  6. Taken Aback1 min
  7. Little Jim2 min
  8. Jim at Sixteen2 min
  9. Whe’ Fe Do?2 min
  10. King Banana2 min
  11. Pleading2 min
  12. The Biter Bit2 min
  13. Out of Debt2 min
  14. The Hermit1 min
  15. Fetchin’ Water2 min
  16. School-Teacher Nell’s Lub-Letter1 min
  17. Nellie White1 min
  18. Retribution1 min
  19. To E. M. E1 min
  20. Hard Times1 min
  21. Cudjoe Fresh From De Lecture3 min
  22. De Days Dat Are Gone1 min
  23. Reveille Soun’in’1 min
  24. Old England1 min
  25. Dat Dirty Rum2 min
  26. Heart-Stirrings3 min
  27. De Dog-Rose1 min
  28. A Midnight Woman to the Bobby3 min
  29. Mother Dear1 min
  30. Kite-Flying1 min
  31. Ione1 min
  32. Killin’ Nanny1 min
  33. My Native Land, My Home1 min
  34. Two-An’-Six4 min
  35. Compensation1 min
  36. Heartless Rhoda1 min
  37. A Dream4 min
  38. Rise and Fall1 min
  39. Beneath the Yampy Shade[1]1 min
  40. To Inspector W. E. Clark (On the Eve of His Departure for England)1 min
  41. To Clarendon Hills and H. A. H1 min
  42. When You Want a Bellyful1 min
  43. Strokes of the Tamarind Switch2 min
  44. My Pretty Dan1 min
  45. Ribber Come-Do’n[1]2 min
  46. A Country Girl2 min
  47. My Soldier-Lad1 min
  48. My Mountain Home1 min
  49. To Bennie (In Answer to a Letter)1 min
  50. Hopping off the Tram1 min
  51. To a Comrade1 min
  52. Jubba[1]2 min

About this text

Claude McKay († 1948): public-domain work. The text is that of la transcription numérique de Lehigh University reprise par eCampusOntario (Songs of Jamaica, by Claude McKay, with an introduction by Walter Jekyll, Kingston, Aston W. Gardner & Co., 1912). Erostrate has not changed a single word: only the layout and the division into pages are ours.

Note on the edition (in French): Texte de l'édition originale (1912), avec l'introduction de Walter Jekyll et les notes de l'auteur, d'après la transcription numérique de Lehigh University reprise par eCampusOntario ; non relu sur un fac-similé, aucun scan de 1912 n'étant accessible. Mélodies notées non reprises.

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