Martin carter short biography

13 December was the tenth anniversary of the death of Martin Carter, a great Caribbean man of letters and a poet who stands&#;alongside Walcott, Brathwaite, and Bennett&#;at the head of the West Indian poetic tradition.

In yesterday&#;s Stabroek News, Al Creighton took a brief look back at Carter&#;s posthumous career and offered close readings of two of his poems, &#;The Poems Man&#; and &#;The Conjunction&#;. The CRB has run two substantial pieces on Carter in the last couple of years. In our November issue, Vahni Capildeo reviewed University of Hunger, the edition of Carter&#;s poems edited by Gemma Robinson. And in February , we published an essay on Carter, &#;The truth of craft&#;, by Stewart Brown (who co-edited another edition of the great man&#;s poems last year, with Ian McDonald).

(I wrote a review of University of Hunger too&#;in the July/August Caribbean Beat.)

Other Carter resources online:
&#; his very brief Wikipedia entry (in need of some expert attention)
&#; his entry in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, for those with subscriptions
&#; a short tribute by Geoffrey Philp, published on Carter&#;s birthday in
&#; a review of Carter&#;s Poems of Succession, by Wyck Williams
&#; an interview with Carter done in by Gemma Robinson

British soldiers arrive in Georgetown – British Guiana – October 9,
Photo Credit: Stabroek News (Photo British Pathé)

My Poetry Corner July features the poem “This is the Dark Time My Love” by Guyanese poet Martin Carter () from his poetry collection, Poems of Resistance from British Guiana (London ). Following the suspension of the British Guiana Constitution in , the poet-politician composed the poems in this collection during his three-month detention, together with other political leaders, by the British Army.

For readers unfamiliar with Guyana’s history, a former British colony until May 26, , slavery ended in Indentured laborers began arriving from India in and continued until Other immigrant workers came from Portuguese Madeira () and China (). The population of the colony in the mids was about , people (UN estimate).

Born in in Georgetown, the capital of then British Guiana, to middle class parents of African, Indian, and European ancestry, the young Martin grows up with an appreciation for literature, poetry, and philosophy. After attending the colony’s prestigious Queen’s College, for boys only, he gains entry to the civil service, working first at the post office, then later as the secretary of the superintendent of prisons.

Aware of the oppression and despair of the sugarcane workers who toil under harsh conditions on the British-owned sugar plantations, Carter joins the political struggle for self-governance. In “Looking at Your Hands” (1), he affirms his solidarity with the plantation workers in their shared struggle under British rule. 

No!
I will not still my voice!
I have
too much to claim &#;
[…]
you must know
I do not sleep to dream
but dream to change the world. 

Then everything changes on October 9, After holding local elections for shared governance, the British under Churchill clandestinely land troops to oust the day-old elected government led by the leftist-leaning

Guyanese poet and political activist (–)

For the California railroad car manufacturer, see Carter Brothers.

Martin Wylde Carter (7 June &#;– 13 December ) was a Guyanese poet and political activist. Widely regarded as the greatest Guyanese poet, and one of the most important poets of the Caribbean region, Carter is best known for his poems of protest, resistance and revolution. He played an active role in Guyanese politics, particularly in the years leading up Independence in and those immediately following. He was famously imprisoned by the British government in Guyana (then British Guiana) in October under allegations of "spreading dissension", and again in June for taking part in a People's Progressive Party (PPP) procession. Shortly after being released from prison the first time, he published his best-known poetry collection, Poems of Resistance from British Guiana ().

Life

Martin Carter was born in Georgetown in what was then British Guiana (now Guyana) to Victor Emmanuel and Violet Eugene Carter (née Wylde) on 7 June He was one of seven siblings. From to he attended Queen's College school, in Georgetown. On leaving Queen's College, Carter decided not to go to university and, instead, joined the civil service where he worked for the Post Office and then for the Prison Service. The year saw the first publication of Carter's poetry, when a "fragment" of his poem "An Ode to Midnight" was printed in A. J. Seymour's literary journal Kyk-Over-Al. In Carter became one of the founding members of the socialist and anti-colonial People's Progressive Party (PP

Poet

One of the most important poets to come out of the Caribbean, Martin Carter has been compared to literary lions such as W.B. Yeats and Pablo Neruda. His most famous work was fueled by the political turmoil that gripped his native Guyana in the s and s. He told fellow Guyanese writer Bill Carr in an interview for the Guyanese magazine Release that politics and poetry were inseparable. "[If] politics is a part of life, we shall become involved in politics, if death is a part of life we shall become involved with death, like the butterfly who is not afraid to be ephemeral." Unfortunately, because of the fame of his politically-charged poems Carter was often pigeon-holed as a revolutionary poet. But as Guyana's Stabroek News wrote, "there were other voices in Martin Carter, strains of tenderness, love poems of moving fervour, agonies expressed that have nothing to do with politics, insights into all of human nature."

During his life, Carter received limited recognition outside of Guyana, mainly because he refused to abandon his country. A friend of his told the Guyana Chronicle, "Exile for him was not going overseas like so many of the Caribbean's best writers, but exiled within his own country; in his own way, and fighting the fight at home." As he fought that fight, he wrought words of defiance, beauty, pain, and hope, leaving a literary legacy that, finally, in the 21st century is receiving worldwide critical respect.

Developed Early Passion for Poetry

Martin Wylde Carter was born on June 7, in Georgetown, Guyana (then British Guiana) to Victor and Violet Carter. His parents were of African, Indian, and European ancestry and held secure positions in Guyana's middle class, thanks both to their mixed blood and to Victor's civil service job. They were also avid readers and instilled in Carter a love of literature and letters. In , after graduating from Queen's College, a prestigious boys school in Georgetown, Carter also