welcome to miss lou peom website

I saw my land in the morning, and oh, but she was fair;
Her hills flamed upward scorning death and failure here."

Perhaps the most locally celebrated of our poets is The Hon. Louise Bennett-Coverly O.J. She has many books in print and has received the Order of Jamaica, the island's highest honor, for preserving our culture through her contribution to the arts.

Here are a few of Miss Lou's poems (followed by two poems from Claude Mckay, another Jamaican poet):

Education, Studiration by Louise Bennett

If yu bright den yuh got de right -- to Education

Mi full up mi purse wid money,
Dem tief it weh from me.
Mi full up mi belly wid food
An as mi sneeze mi feel hungry.

Mi full up mi brain wid learnin,
Wid sense and Knowledge gran,
Mi feel relief not a tief can tief
Mi education!

Chile, if yuh got ambition,
No matta how yuh poor
Nutten can keep yuh down now
Dere's free schoolin galore!

Wid one step bram bram into
De bes' school in de lan'
To qualify and tun boasify
Wid education!

Mas Joseph tun-foot nephew,
Jane twis-mout gal Ritty,
Tata daughter a study fi University.
Dem countenance not handsome, 
Dem station is not gran',
Dem clothes a wreck
but dem brains can tek 
EDUCATION!

© sheldon roper 2005