Author: Martin Cater
publisher name: New Beacon Books Ltd
ISBN: 9780901241214
"Poems of Succession" is a collection of poetry by Martin Carter, a Guyanese poet and political activist. The book includes a selection of poems from earlier anthologies along with unpublished poems. Carter's poetry is described as having fire, hope, disillusion, and anguish. His poetic voice is said to bear some resemblance to the American tradition of poets like Whitman or Neruda, as well as the European tradition of Mayakovsky. The collection reflects a tradition of public poetry and explores themes of personal anguish.
Born in Georgetown in 1927, Martin Carter was not only a poet but also a civil servant and radical political activist in the early 1950s. He experienced imprisonment in 1953 and wrote his influential collection, "Poems of Resistance from British Guiana," during his detention. Carter later worked as a teacher and served as the Minister of Information and Culture in the government of Forbes Burnham from 1968 to 1970. In 1978, the year of the publication of "Poems of Succession," Carter returned to radical political activity. He passed away in 1997.
The book seems to capture the evolution of Carter's poetic voice over the years and delves into both public and private aspects of his life and experiences.
