Caribbean poetry

Caribbean poetry is vast and rapidly evolving field of poetry written by people from the Caribbean region and the diaspora.

Caribbean poetry generally refers to a myriad of poetic forms, spanning epic, lyrical verse, prose poems, dramatic poetry and oral poetry, composed in Caribbean territories regardless of language. It is most often, however, written in English, Spanish, Spanglish, French, Hindustani, Dutch, or any number of creoles. Poetry in English from the former British West Indies has been referred to as Anglo-Caribbean poetry or West Indian poetry.

Since the mid-1970s, Caribbean poetry has gained increasing visibility with the publication in Britain and North America of several anthologies.^[1] Over the decades the canon has shifted and expanded, drawing both on oral and literary traditions and including more women poets and politically charged works.^[2][3][4] Caribbean writers, performance poets, newspaper poets, singer-songwriters have created a popular art form, a poetry heard by audiences all over the world.^[5] Caribbean oral poetry shares the vigour of the written tradition.^[5]

Among the most prominent Caribbean poets whose works are widely studied (and translated into other languages) are: Derek Walcott (who won the 1992 Nobel Prize for Literature),^[6][7] Kamau Brathwaite,^[8] Edouard Glissant,^[9] Giannina Braschi,^[10][11] Lorna Goodison,^[12] Aimé Fernand Césaire,^[13] Linton Kwesi Johnson,^[14][15] Kwame Dawes,^[16] and Claudia Rankine.^[17][18]

Common themes include: exile and return to the motherland;^[19] the relationship of language to nation;^[20] colonialism and postcolonialism; self-determination and liberty;^[21] racial identity.^[22][23]