Born to Slow Horses

by Kamau Brathwaite

Overview

Winner of the Griffin International Poetry Prize (2006)

Kamau Brathwaite's Born to Slow Horses is a series of poetic meditations on islands and exile, language and ritual, and the force of personal and historical passions and griefs. These poems are haunted, figuratively and literally, by spirits of the African diaspora and drenched in the colors, sounds, and rhythms of the islands. But they also encompass the world of the exile and return, and the events of 9/11 in New York City. Brathwaite is one of the foremost voices in postcolonial inquiry and expression, and his poetry is densely rooted and expansive.

Using his unusual "sycorax" signature typography and spelling, Brathwaite brings a cultural specificity, with distinct accents, sonic gestures, and pronunciations, into his pages—making them new, exciting, and rich in nuances.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780819580559
Publisher:	Wesleyan University Press
Publication date:	02/09/2021
Series:	Wesleyan Poetry Series
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	152
Sales rank:	978,059
File size:	3 MB
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

KAMAU BRATHWAITE (1930–2020) was an internationally celebrated poet, performer, and cultural theorist. He won numerous awards, including the Neustadt International Prize for Literature and the Griffin Poetry Prize. A retired professor of comparative literature at New York University, Brathwaite lived in CowPastor, Barbados.

Kamau Brathwaite (1930–2020) was an internationally celebrated poet, performer, and cultural theorist. He won numerous awards, including the Neustadt International Prize for Literature and the Griffin Poetry Prize. A retired professor of comparative literature at New York University, Brathwaite lived in CowPastor, Barbados.

Table of Contents

I -The Master of the Mary Jones - Bermudas - Guanahani
II - Donna - Days & Nights - Iwa
III - MMassaccourraamann
IIII - 'I was wash-way in blood'- Bread - Dear PM
V - Kumina
9/11 - Hawk
VII - Namesetoura - Mountain - The Robin Poem

What People are Saying About This

Forrest Gander

"It is Kamau Brathwaite whose work, more than that of any Caribbean poet since Cesar Vallejo (in translation), is influencing the future of poetry written in English. Disinterested in derivative European meters and themes, Brathwaite delivers a piping body of work characterized by innovation in typography, diction, form, and prosody. The news-flash contemporaneity of his subject material, the complexly counterpointed musical phrasing, and his tempestuous, politically incisive wordplay collaborate to invest his poems with an unparalleled exigency. Born to Slow Horses is a fast, breathless ride."

From the Publisher

"It is Kamau Brathwaite whose work, more than that of any Caribbean poet since Cesar Vallejo (in translation), is influencing the future of poetry written in English. Disinterested in derivative European meters and themes, Brathwaite delivers a piping body of work characterized by innovation in typography, diction, form, and prosody. The news-flash contemporaneity of his subject material, the complexly counterpointed musical phrasing, and his tempestuous, politically incisive wordplay collaborate to invest his poems with an unparalleled exigency. Born to Slow Horses is a fast, breathless ride."—Forrest Gander

"Those who lament that the Age of Giants is over have evidently never read Kamau Brathwaite. His is not the poetry of one man in the world but of an entire world in one man."—Eliot Weinberger

Eliot Weinberger

“Those who lament that the Age of Giants is over have evidently never read Kamau Brathwaite. His is not the poetry of one man in the world but of an entire world in one man.”

Editorial Reviews

Omnivorously synthetic, insistently local, sinuously syncopated and consistently exciting, Brathwaite's "nation language" has placed him among the most admired writers of the English-speaking Caribbean. This 22nd book of verse shows off his explosive range of technical innovations- in stanza form, dialect, even layout and typography-in seven adventurous medium-length works. One sequence describes coastlines and islands as seen from the air. Another adopts the voice of a girl who may be a slave remembering the Middle Passage or a modern youth encountering its ghosts: "my mother say i be alone/ and when i cry," she muses, "i be Columbus of my ships/ and sail the garden round the tears that fall into my hand." Other sequences focus on generational succession and on hopeful, endangered or murdered children, invoking the Jamaican ritual called kumina, the myth of Osiris, the biblical binding of Isaac and the lives of Brathwaite's own extended family. Though critics admire and writers imitate him all over the globe, the Barbadian poet (who teaches at New York University) has never developed a broad U.S. readership: this complicated but accessible volume gives him his best chance in years to do just that. (Aug.) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

"If...we believe that poetry must move the reader on an intellectual and visceral level, so that the reader is inspired to return to it and re-read again and again, then Born to Slow Horses promises to stand the test of time."—Harold Heft, The Gazette, Montreal

"It is Kamau Brathwaite whose work, more than that of any Caribbean poet since Cesar Vallejo (in translation), is influencing the future of poetry written in English. Disinterested in derivative European meters and themes, Brathwaite delivers a piping body of work characterized by innovation in typography, diction, form, and prosody. The news-flash contemporaneity of his subject material, the complexly counterpointed musical phrasing, and his tempestuous, politically incisive wordplay collaborate to invest his poems with an unparalleled exigency. Born to Slow Horses is a fast, breathless ride."—Forrest Gander

"Those who lament that the Age of Giants is over have evidently never read Kamau Brathwaite. His is not the poetry of one man in the world but of an entire world in one man."—Eliot Weinberger

From the Publisher