The Poetics of Empire: A Study of James Grainger's The Sugar CaneFirst published in 1764, The Sugar-Cane is a major work in the history of Anglophone Caribbean literature. It is the only poem written in the Caribbean before the Twentieth Century to achieve a place in the Western 'canon'. Grainger sought to interpret his personal experience of the Caribbean through his wide and deep reading in literature, from the Greeks to Milton. Grainger wrote a 'West India Georgic', challenging assumptions about poetic diction and the proper subject matter of poetry, and boldly asserting the importance of the Caribbean to the Eighteenth Century British empire.. This is the first reliable text and critical study of the poem, setting it within the context of Grainger's life and work. |
Contents
| 1 | |
Notes to Introduction | 67 |
A Poem | 87 |
Great Homer deignd to sing of little Mice | 199 |
Bryan and Pereene | 202 |
Colonel Martins directions for planting and sugarmaking | 205 |
Other editions - View all
The Poetics of Empire: A Study of James Grainger's The Sugar Cane James Grainger Limited preview - 2000 |
Common terms and phrases
13th Foot Antigua appears Barbados Book botanical name Bourryau Britain British Bryan and Pereene called Cane cane-juice Caribbean Caribbean English Chalmers Chapman Christopher classical clime common West-India Diseases Compare cultivated Cyder death described Dyer echoes Edinburgh edition eighteenth century English Essay Fleece French fruit georgic Grainger refers Grainger to Percy Grainger's note hath History of Barbados hurricane Indian Indies island isles Jamaica Jamaican English James Grainger John Philips Johnson juice Kevan labour later Latin Lloyd Thomas London Mathew mentioned Monthly Review muscovado Muse native Negroes Nichols NLS Adv o'er passage Percy Letters physician plant plantation planter Poems of John poet poetic poetry published quotation says Scottish slavery slaves soil soon Spaniards species St Kitts sugar Sugar-Cane suggests swains TCD f Theana thee thine Thomas Percy thou Tibullus tion toil translation tree Virgil Voyage W. E. K. Anderson West West-Indies William William Mathew Burt
Popular passages
Page 23 - In every work regard the writer's end, Since none can compass more than they intend ; And if the means be just, the conduct true, Applause, in spite of trivial faults, is due. As men of breeding, sometimes men of wit, T...
References to this book
Caribbean-English Passages: Intertexuality in a Postcolonial Tradition Tobias Döring Limited preview - 2002 |
Feminism and Empire: Women Activists in Imperial Britain, 1790-1865 Clare Midgley No preview available - 2007 |