American Fall

Raymond Ramcharitar

ISBN 10: 1845230434 / ISBN 13: 9781845230432

Published by Peepal Tree Press Ltd, GB, 2007

About this Item

Raymond Ramcharitar's sophisticated and formally ambitious poems have Trinidad as their centre but are global in scope. This is reflected both in their subject matter and their form. The regular movement between the Caribbean, Europe and North America that several of the poems chart is seen both as a contemporary reality, and as no more than a continuation of history's patterns: of, for instance, Indo-Trinidadians who are the 'scions of waylaid Brahmins and pariahs'. This particular migration is placed in the context of a wider world of human movement and 'new theologies springing from old longings'. In form, too, the poems refuse to be confined by any limiting sense of the contemporary and the Caribbean. Use of the archetypes of classical mythology, traditional verse patterns (such as the villanelle) and the careful, confident use of rhythm and rhyme are the most evident outward features of Ramcharitar's concern with form. There are homages to Derek Walcott and Wallace Stevens, but the closer one's acquaintance with the poems, the more evident that Ramcharitar's post-modern voice is a thoroughly individual one, with a capacity for writing verse narratives that are condensed but reverberate like the best short stories, dramatic monologues that skilfully create other voices, and lyric poems that get inside the less obvious byways of emotion.Raymond Ramcharitar was born in Trinidad. He worked as a journalist and is the author of a controversial and provocative study of the deficiencies of the Trinidadian press, Breaking the News: Media and Culture in Trinidad.

Seller Inventory # LU-9781845230432

Bibliographic Details

• Title: American Fall
• Publisher: Peepal Tree Press Ltd, GB
• Publication Date: 2007
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1845230434
• ISBN 13: 9781845230432
• Binding: Paperback
• Condition: New
• Weight: 80 grams

About this title

Synopsis

This ambitious collection of poetry, while centered in Trinidad, remains global in its scope and movement. Its thoroughly contemporary voice shows concern for traditional form with a confident use of rhythm and rhyme and a subject matter that moves between Europe, the Caribbean, and North America―drawing comparisons to Derek Walcott and Wallace Stevens.

About the Author

Raymond Ramcharitar is a former journalist and the author of Breaking the News: Media and Culture in Trinidad.