“Literature is in the Guyanese blood. The Guyanese Titan is David Dabydeen. He bestrides West Indian writing and the study of Caribbean culture in the UK like a colossus” (2).

The poetry of David Dabydeen grew out of his disappointment of finding no Creole poetry in his study of English Literature at Cambridge University.  However, he didn’t publish any until much later at the urging of friends.  His first collection of poems is Slave Song, in which he explores the erotic – sadomasochistic -- nature of slavery and plantation life, and which won the Comonwealth Poetry Prize and Cambridge University Quiller-Couch Prize.    What Dabydeen himself describes as “raw” expresses the duality and exploitation of colonialism fueled by the triangle trade of slave, rum and sugar cane.

His second collection is titled Coolie Odyssey.  Here he uses a classical Homeric form to trace the journey of indentured East Indians to the West Indies, and the following generations.  Much of this poetry must have sprung directly from Dabydeen’s own upbringing, especially the image of a mother insisting that her son go to school in Georgetown to avoid the tragic cycle of the cane fields.  William Shepler notes that while Dabydeen employs “standard” English in this collection, “the rhythm of the line and the sound of the poem are Caribbean" (3).

Dabydeen’s latest volume of poetry is Turner: New and Selected Poems inspired by JMW Turner’s celebrated painting “Slavers Throwing Overboard the Dead & Dying”.  The poem “Turner” was described Caryl Phillips as “a major poem, full of lyricism and compassion, which gracefully shoulders the burden of history and introduces us to voices from the past whose voices we have all inherited”, and by Hanif Kureishi as “Magnificent, vivid and original. The best long poem I’ve read in years” (1).

1.  Bannister, Hannah.  “Turner.”  E-mail to Linda Smith. 19 November 2002. Peepal Tree Press <peepal@btconnect.com>

2.  Mair, John.   Some famous Guyanese in the United Kingdom. Posted October 21st.   <2001 Stabroek News>

3.  Shepler, William. Postcolonial Studies at Emory. Spring 1999 Last Update: June 07, 2000  <http://www.emory.edu/ENGLISH/Bahri/Dabydeen.html>