Sabbaths, WI

“The Sea Is History” by Derek Walcott (2007)

Another poem by Derek Walcott, “The Sea Is History” uses Christian imagery to tell the story of Black enslavement and liberation. Like “Sabbaths, W.I.,” the poem includes both religion and nature.

“from Mesongs” by Kamau Brathwaite (2010)

Kamau Brathwaite is another notable Black poet from the Caribbean. Brathwaite’s poetry has been said to be stylistically similar to the works of T. S. Elliot. As a contemporary of Walcott’s, his work often shows consideration of similar themes. The linked poem and “Sabbath’s, W.I.” both include similar comparisons of Catholic structures and the natural world, as well as the lives of humans.

“The Woman and the Flame” by Aimé Césaire (1948)

Aimé Césaire helped define and expand, if not initiate, the Négritude movement in arts and literature, which spanned from the 1930s to 50s and spoke out against French colonialism. Césaire’s works provide a Francophone view of the Caribbean.

“The Dead” by Nancy Morejón (2014)

This is Pamela Carmell’s English translation of Nancy Morejón’s Spanish poem. Morejón is another Caribbean poet; she is from Cuba. Caribbean poetry is written in a variety of languages, which speaks to the colonization of the area by the English, French, and Spanish.