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Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Searching... Subject: WEST INDIES Matches Found: 86 UPDATE command denied to user 'poetryex_users'@'localhost' for table `poetryex_poems`.`subcnt` A SEA-CHANTEY, by DEREK WALCOTT Poem Full Text Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: La, tout n'est qu'ordre et beaute Subject(s): West Indies; Caribbean Islands AN ALL NIGHT SEA FIGHT, by WILLIAM MCGONAGALL Poem Text Poet's Biography First Line: Ye sons of mars, come list to me Last Line: After thecannonading had ceased and the fighting was o'er. Subject(s): British West Indies; Sea Battles; Naval Warfare APPRENTICE, by C. DALE YOUNG Poem Source First Line: Someone should have painted this room Last Line: Why have I sought the dead among the living? Subject(s): West Indies ARRIPARE, by C. DALE YOUNG Poem Source First Line: Under this cloudless sky, the sea is more blue Last Line: Under a sky that betrayed no storm Subject(s): West Indies AUBADE, by C. DALE YOUNG Poem Source First Line: This morning, the tide left us %nothing exemplary to peruse Last Line: And continued walking through a shower %of methyl-orange petals, slowly Subject(s): West Indies B.W.I., by JOHN UPDIKE Poem Full Text Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: Under a priceless sun Last Line: Goats and airmail / stationery Subject(s): British West Indies B.W.I., by JOHN UPDIKE Poem Source Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: Under a priceless sun Last Line: The endless hours Subject(s): British West Indies BLUE SPRINGS, by C. DALE YOUNG Poem Source First Line: As if the sky during its emergence Last Line: Incompatible with the work of sycophants Subject(s): West Indies BROUGHTONIA, by C. DALE YOUNG Poem Source First Line: But there under the dark eves Last Line: No. I can no longer imagine. I choose not to Subject(s): West Indies CANCER AND COMPLAINT AT MIDSUMMER, by C. DALE YOUNG Poem Source First Line: Because the silence of the dead Last Line: Which I still cling to just the same Subject(s): West Indies CEMETERY REEF; GRAND CAYMAN ISLAND, by ELIZABETH SPIRES Poem Source Poet's Biography First Line: Walking down the beach, I took your arm Last Line: Remember you with the kind that always die Subject(s): Cancer (disease); Death; Grand Cayman Island, West Indies CHOOSING A PROFESSION, by MARY LAMB Poem Text Poet's Biography First Line: A creole boy from the west indies brought Last Line: Were dancing in the street the first of may. Subject(s): Boys; Careers; West Indies; Caribbean Islands COLONISATION IN REVERSE, by SIMONE LOUISE BENNETT Poem Full Text Poet's Biography First Line: Wat a joyful new, miss mattie Last Line: Colonizin' in reverse. Alternate Author Name(s): Bennett, Louise Subject(s): Great Britain - Commonwealth & Colonies; Imperialism; Jamaica, West Indies; British Empire; England - Empire COMPLAINT OF THE MEDICAL ILLUSTRATOR, by C. DALE YOUNG Poem Source First Line: Here is the incision Last Line: He dissected %his only son's dead body? Subject(s): West Indies CRUSOE'S ISLAND, by DEREK WALCOTT Poem Full Text Poem Explanation Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: The chapel's cowbell / like god's anvil Subject(s): Saint Lucia, West Indies CRUSOE'S ISLAND, by DEREK WALCOTT Poem Source Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: The chapel's cowbell %like god's anvil Last Line: Can bless them as the bell's %transfiguring tongue can bless Subject(s): Saint Lucia, West Indies CUBA, by PABLO MEDINA Poem Source First Line: There it is, the long prow Last Line: And the death of desire Variant Title(s): The Floating Islan Subject(s): Cuba; Exiles; West Indies DEVON HOUSE, by C. DALE YOUNG Poem Source First Line: Lamps have begun to light as evening Last Line: Where once everyone drowned in leaf-filtered sunlight Subject(s): West Indies EFFECTS OF SUNSET, by C. DALE YOUNG Poem Source First Line: At the edge of the yard, the grass thinning Last Line: A foot away, the water was dark, getting darker Subject(s): West Indies ENDLESS CUMULUS, by C. DALE YOUNG Poem Source First Line: Red like the heart of a calcium flame Last Line: The sun caught in the air rising from his lips Subject(s): West Indies ETIQUETTE ET L'ESTHETIQUE TROPICALE, by C. DALE YOUNG Poem Source First Line: Our mint tea cools slowly in this heat Last Line: The percussion of water falling down the rocks Subject(s): West Indies EXILE, by C. DALE YOUNG Poem Source First Line: Clothed only by the sound of the sea Last Line: Trying their damnedest to remind us of nothing Subject(s): West Indies FIELD, by C. DALE YOUNG Poem Source First Line: The hum of wood lice, %the way it %approximates Last Line: The paper-thin curls of bark %on our shirts, the dry grass %falling from our hair Subject(s): West Indies FIREWEED, by C. DALE YOUNG Poem Source First Line: Follower of ashes; follower %of the bleached-out, burned-out Last Line: Follower of the fourth-oldest dream- %the landscape burning and burning Subject(s): West Indies FOOTBRIDGE IN SUMMER, by C. DALE YOUNG Poem Source First Line: The shadow that is mold, dark and crusted Last Line: The air beneath its wings sounding arcs across water Subject(s): West Indies FOR THE SAKE OF TIGER LILIES, by C. DALE YOUNG Poem Source First Line: In a clearing, in a swell of grasses Last Line: Always the sound, always the salt licking the air Subject(s): Loss; Moving And Movers; Refugees; U.s. - Immigration And Emigration; West Indies FOUR POEMS ABOUT JAMAICA: 2. JAMAICANS POSING TO BE PHOTOGRAPHED, by WILLIAM MATTHEWS Poem Full Text Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: Illiterate esther watched me Alternate Author Name(s): Matthews, William Procter Subject(s): Photography & Photographers; Jamaica, West Indies FOUR POEMS ABOUT JAMAICA: 3. A HAIRPIN TURN ABOVE READING, JAMAICA, by WILLIAM MATTHEWS Poem Full Text Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: Here's where the fire truck fell Alternate Author Name(s): Matthews, William Procter Subject(s): Jamaica, West Indies; Wealth; Politics & Government; Riches; Fortunes HOMAGE TO WILLIAM CARLOS WILLIAMS: 1. THE BODY, by C. DALE YOUNG Poem Source First Line: You removed integument. %you palpated red fibrils Last Line: Taking cadaver, meaning to fall Subject(s): West Indies HOMAGE TO WILLIAM CARLOS WILLIAMS: 2. CORPUS, by C. DALE YOUNG Poem Source First Line: Nothing could keep you away Last Line: Not the yellow wheelbarrow outside her window Subject(s): West Indies HOMAGE TO WILLIAM CARLOS WILLIAMS: 3. THE BODY IN BLOOM, by C. DALE YOUNG Poem Source First Line: Geneva, the lycee condorcet in paris Last Line: The truth of blood when we are cut %so the body blooms Subject(s): West Indies HOT THOUGHT, by VICTOR HERNANDEZ CRUZ Poem Source First Line: The idea that something called Last Line: Before they both melt Subject(s): Cities; Ponce De Leon, Juan (1460-1521); Puerto Rico; West Indies HOTEL DI L'ALTISSIMO, by C. DALE YOUNG Poem Source First Line: The wind ambushes the beach. Who is at fault? Last Line: He was no longer worth even the black of his signature Subject(s): West Indies IF YOU SEE ME IN L.A. IT'S BECAUSE I'M LOOKING FOR AIRPORT, by VICTOR HERNANDEZ CRUZ Poem Source First Line: Even without hollywood Last Line: Beholding the distance %of the smog Subject(s): Hispanic Americans; Los Angeles; Mexico City; Travel; West Indies IMAGO, by C. DALE YOUNG Poem Source First Line: The white tongues of the sea did nothing Last Line: As they ran down a dark corridor of trees Subject(s): West Indies IN LATE-AFTERNNON LIGHT THE TOPS OF THE BREADFRUIT LEAVES, by DEREK WALCOTT Poem Source Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: In late-afternoon light the tops of the breadfruit leaves Last Line: Green and red lights droning where stars and fireflies breed Subject(s): Saint Lucia, West Indies IN MEMORY OF A FRIEND, by LEWIS MORRIS (1833-1907) Poem Text Poet's Biography First Line: Beneath the feathery fronds of palm Last Line: And consecrates a soul! Subject(s): Jamaica, West Indies; Schalch, Ernest (d. 1874); Yellow Fever JAM FA JAMAICA, by CHARLES LYNCH Poem Source First Line: Munch lime sip sky juice slurp kiskimo pine Last Line: Oracabessa rio bueno %salvation army blares liberty %in twilight square of port antonio Subject(s): Jamaica, West Indies JAMAICA, by DONALD HALL Poem Full Text Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: Nothing is taller than a royal palm Subject(s): Jamaica, West Indies LESSON, by C. DALE YOUNG Poem Source First Line: But this was not the first time Last Line: Now hold its allegiance Subject(s): West Indies LETTER TO A PAINTER IN ENGLAND, by DEREK WALCOTT Poem Full Text Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: Where you rot under the strict gray industry Last Line: That would inform the blind world of its flesh Subject(s): Paintings & Painters; Letters; Seasons; West Indies MAGUS, by C. DALE YOUNG Poem Source First Line: The pearls, mere reminders %the ocean's rapid recoil, a signal Last Line: These are my hands that gnarled though they be %when lifted to this sky bring rain Subject(s): West Indies MIDSUMMER: 27, by DEREK WALCOTT Poem Full Text Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: Certain things here are quietly american Subject(s): West Indies; Caribbean Islands MIDSUMMER: 27, by DEREK WALCOTT Poem Source Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: Certain things here are quietly american Last Line: The quality of the dirt, the fealty changing under my foot Subject(s): West Indies MILLENNIUM, by C. DALE YOUNG Poem Source First Line: The sun, barely risen, %threw spicules of light through the trees Last Line: Like a darkly lit poem by stevens Subject(s): West Indies MINUTIAE, by C. DALE YOUNG Poem Source First Line: Even now, whole patches of grass, %still white without moonlight Last Line: (well, a vinelike, weedy plant) growing, %pushing its small red petals into the air Subject(s): West Indies MOLASSES REEF WRECK, by LAURENCE LIEBERMAN Poem Source First Line: No telling %how many ships Last Line: Face banishment from these our sovereign %blest shores Subject(s): Artifacts; Colonialism; Columbus, Christopher (1451-1506); Coral; Disasters; Diving And Divers; Explorers; Seaweed; Shipwrecks; Slavery; Spain; West Indies MY MOTHER (2), by CLAUDE MCKAY Poem Text Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: Reg wished me to go with him to the field Alternate Author Name(s): Edwards, Eli Subject(s): Jamaica, West Indies; Mothers MY MOTHER (2), by CLAUDE MCKAY Poem Source Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: Reg wished me to go with him to the field Last Line: Could weep just once again Alternate Author Name(s): Edwards, Eli Subject(s): Jamaica, West Indies; Mothers ODE TO A YELLOW ONION, by C. DALE YOUNG Poem Source First Line: And what if I had simply passed you by Last Line: But a woman can unravel you Subject(s): West Indies OF THE GARDEN VARIETY, by C. DALE YOUNG Poem Source First Line: Before the first scalpel of light Last Line: You might learn something? Subject(s): West Indies ON A SCOTCH BARD, GONE TO THE WEST INDIES, by ROBERT BURNS Poem Text Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: A'ye wha live by sowps o' drink Last Line: Tho' owre the sea! Subject(s): Jamaica, West Indies; Poetry & Poets ON PRIVILEGE, by C. DALE YOUNG Poem Source First Line: The rampant cane fields rife with disease Last Line: I am a fisherman, casting an empty hook Subject(s): West Indies ON THE WRETCHED LOT OF THE SLAVES IN THE ISLES OF WESTERN INDIA, by SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE Poem Source Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: O death, leaving the gates of darkness, come Last Line: The sufferers thy name shall dart to heaven Subject(s): Slavery; West Indies ONE DAY, by IMOGENE ELIZABETH KENNEDY Poem Source Last Line: Which is the same hour fader's prayer Subject(s): Jamaica, West Indies PHILOSOPHER IN FLORIDA, by C. DALE YOUNG Poem Source First Line: Midsummer lies on this town %like a plague: locusts now replaced Last Line: It repeats itself with or without us Subject(s): West Indies POEM, by C. DALE YOUNG Poem Source First Line: What we call rain, %the water breaking %itself into smaller selves Last Line: Being everything, being %that which says welcome %most genuinely Subject(s): West Indies PORT ROYAL, by C. DALE YOUNG Poem Source First Line: Ignoring the local reliquiae- %neoclassical arches in ruins Last Line: Rule britannia, britannia rules the waves Subject(s): West Indies PORTO RICO, by JOSE GAUTIER BENITEZ Poem Text Poem Explanation First Line: Borinquen! Name as sweet to the thought Last Line: To the sweet influence of the world without! Subject(s): Islands; Latin America - History; Puerto Rico; West Indies QUEEN'S SAPPHIRES, by C. DALE YOUNG Poem Source First Line: Here, rome falls again and again- %the wind whistling a mock classic Last Line: With flowers as blue as blood Subject(s): West Indies REQUIEM, by C. DALE YOUNG Poem Source First Line: Again. Grey, the unsurprising slap Last Line: Grey, the nun's habit blown into a halo Subject(s): West Indies ROAD OF THE DREAD, by LORNA GOODISON Poem Source First Line: That dey road no pave Last Line: But is fi dat alone I tread this road Subject(s): Jamaica, West Indies SCHOONER FLIGHT, by DEREK WALCOTT Poem Source Poem Explanation Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: In idle august, while the sea soft Last Line: Shabine sang to you from the depths of the sea Subject(s): Sea Voyages; West Indies SEA-CHANTEY, by DEREK WALCOTT Poem Source Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: Anguilla, adina %antigua, cannelles Last Line: The amen of calm waters Subject(s): West Indies SILENCE, by C. DALE YOUNG Poem Source First Line: This is not what I meant: %the glare of morning's grin, the seagulls Last Line: We do not feel the world or its blistering warmth Subject(s): West Indies SORROWS OF YAMBA, OR THE NEGRO WOMAN'S LAMENTATION, by HANNAH MORE Poem Source Poet's Biography First Line: In st. Lucia's distant isle Last Line: There 'the weary are at rest' Subject(s): Blacks; Lament; Saint Lucia, West Indies; Slavery; Women SOUTH BEACH, by C. DALE YOUNG Poem Source First Line: Memory brings us back to such a place Last Line: I will love you, I have always loved you Subject(s): West Indies STELLA MARIS: 1. MATINS, by C. DALE YOUNG Poem Source First Line: Journalist, diarist, poet- %age nine, I scribbled in the sand Last Line: Which reminded me it was lunchtime Subject(s): West Indies STELLA MARIS: 2. VESPERS, by C. DALE YOUNG Poem Source First Line: Because it was a pilgrimage, %we left during the fifth hour of daylight Last Line: I would pray motherhood would never find me there Subject(s): West Indies SUNDAY AFTERNOON, by C. DALE YOUNG Poem Source First Line: Beyond the strings of water %clinging to the windowpane Last Line: O mildewed, seersucker suits %draped over vacant chairs Subject(s): West Indies THE BATTLE OF GUJRAY, by WILLIAM MCGONAGALL Poem Text Poet's Biography First Line: Twas in the year of 1849, and on the 20th of february Last Line: Because india is annexed to the british dominions, and they must obey. Subject(s): British West Indies; Heroism; Soldiers; Victory; War; Heroes; Heroines THE DROWNED HIDALGO DREAMS, by WILLIAM ROSE BENET Poem Text Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: Bahama and the caribbees? But in the mains of sun Last Line: "all day abeam the wondrous dream -- all night its valiantries!" Subject(s): Conquistadors; West Indies; Caribbean Islands THE FREED ISLANDS, by JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER Poem Text Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: A few brief years have passed away Last Line: "to new-world tyrants, old-world kings!" Subject(s): Emancipation Movement & Proclamation; Great Britain - Commonwealth & Colonies; West Indies; Antislavery Movement - United States; British Empire; England - Empire; Caribbean Islands THE INDIAN MAID. DEMARARIE, OCT. 27, 1781, by EDWARD THOMPSON (1739-1786) Poem Text First Line: The indian maid who lightly trips, / the dryad of the guava grove Last Line: Prove her the goddess of the place! Subject(s): Travel; West Indies; Journeys; Trips; Caribbean Islands THE SCHOONER FLIGHT, by DEREK WALCOTT Poem Full Text Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: In idle august, while the sea soft Subject(s): Sea Voyages; West Indies; Caribbean Islands THE SLAVE; A SEA-PIECE, OFF JAMAICA, by RICHARD HENGIST (HENRY) HORNE Poem Text Poet's Biography First Line: Before us in the sultry dawn arose Last Line: The slave is human in a bleeding heart. Subject(s): Jamaica, West Indies; Slavery; Serfs THE SLAVES OF MARTINIQUE, by JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER Poem Text Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: Beams of noon, like burning lances, through the tree-tops flash and glisten Last Line: Hate of slavery, hope of freedom, love is mightier than all. Subject(s): Martinique, West Indies; Slavery; Serfs TO MY WIFE (AT KINGSTON, JAMAICA, WEST INDIES), by JOHN WILLIS MENARD Poem Text Poet's Biography First Line: Thou art gone to thine island home Last Line: And all this sad confusion clear. Subject(s): Jamaica, West Indies TO THE BOUGAINVILLAEA, by C. DALE YOUNG Poem Source First Line: How could I have imagined your absence? Last Line: And everywhere bougainvillaea, bougainvillaea Subject(s): Loss; Moving And Movers; Refugees; U.s. - Immigration And Emigration; West Indies TO THE FIRE-FLY OF JAMAICA, SEEN IN A COLLECTION, by CHARLOTTE SMITH Poem Text Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: How art thou alter'd! Since afar Last Line: Is friendship's long regret, and true affection's tear! Alternate Author Name(s): Smith, Charlotte Turner Subject(s): Fireflies; Jamaica, West Indies; Slavery; Glowworms; Serfs TRANSLATION, by C. DALE YOUNG Poem Source First Line: The sea's reflected light Last Line: Or no light, would start %countless numbers of poems Subject(s): West Indies TUBA MIRUM, by C. DALE YOUNG Poem Source First Line: On a monday like that, %you half expect the moon %to rise above the name Last Line: In search of someone, %someone else Subject(s): West Indies UNFINISHED LETTER, by C. DALE YOUNG Poem Source First Line: Dear rachel, I am dropping you this line Last Line: Withstand an afterlife with them apart Subject(s): West Indies WATER'S EDGE: IMPASTO IN ORANGE MADDER, by C. DALE YOUNG Poem Source First Line: Sunlight paints only the tops of the cabbage palms Last Line: For fear the heron might, without warning, take flight Subject(s): West Indies WEST INDIES, SELS., by JAMES MONTGOMERY Poet Analysis Poet's Biography Alternate Author Name(s): The Common Lot Subject(s): U.s. - History; West Indies WHIP TAIL OF THE ONE-EYED CHIEF, by LAURENCE LIEBERMAN Poem Source First Line: This motley quilt in oils Last Line: Stare of lady field hand Subject(s): Animals; Colonialism; History; Paintings And Painters; Slavery; West Indies; Whips |
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