Poetry
Poems of Resistance from British Guiana
Martin Carter · 1954
Synopsis
Eighteen poems born of the events of 1953, when British troops came to overthrow the elected government of the colony. The poet speaks of colonial oppression and the struggle that answers it: the night when soldiers patrol and he asks the woman he loves to hold out until morning, the clenched fist of the prisoner, the hunger of those who come from the yard of yesterday's slaves, and the brotherhood of men who rise up.
Context
The collection appeared in London in May 1954 from Lawrence and Wishart, a publisher linked to the British Communist Party, shortly after its author's release, and he became one of the first Caribbean poets published outside the region. Some texts, seized by the police or perhaps written in detention, had circulated clandestinely and were read at demonstrations; Janet Jagan had sent part of them to an American journal as early as 1953. The book went through three editions up to 1978 and appears in the collected works published by Bloodaxe in 2006.
Who it is for
Short poems, in English, with no known French translation. It helps to know what the crisis of 1953 in British Guiana was.
Prizes and reception
The best-known collection by its author, who is regarded as the greatest poet of Guyana.
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