Una Marson: Selected Poems (Caribbean Modern Classics)

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Marson's radio programme, Caribbean Voices, was subsequently produced by Henry Swanzy, who took over after she returned to Jamaica. [26] Life after World War II (1945–65) [ edit ]

The conflicting details regarding Marson's personal life show that there is very little information available about her. For example, Waters' article quotes Marson's criticisms of Porgy and Bess, yet provides no citation for this work. In combination with this is the limited record of her writings during this time period. Many of her works were left unpublished or circulated only in Jamaica. [31] Most of these writings are only available in the Institute of Jamaica in Kingston, as a special collection at the National Library of Jamaica. [32] Given these constraints, it is difficult to understand the whole of Marson's accomplishments during the final two decades of her life. It was very special to be given a personal tour of the Second World War Galleries and listen to amazing audio interviews of Lilian Bader, Alan Wilmot, and Billy Strachan in IWM’s research room.All upcoming public events are going ahead as planned and you can find more information on our events blog So I gave it a try and on the 28th March 1941 I was accepted into the Women's Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF), given a unform and kit and my training began. Though her work has been relatively under recognized, Una Maud Marson can be considered as one of the most versatile and creative female intellectuals in Jamaica’s literary heritage. A much- travelled woman, but spending most of her years in Jamaica, England and the United States, she was born on the 6th day of February, 1905 in Santa Cruz, St. Elizabeth to a Baptist pastor, Reverend Solomon Isaac Marson and his wife Ada Wilhelmina Mullings- Marson. She was the youngest daughter of her parents and attended Hampton High School, a traditional boarding school for girls in Malvern, St. Elizabeth. The youngest of six children, Marson had a traditional Jamaican middle-class childhood. ‘Her father was a pastor, and died when she was 10,’ says Dr Delia Jarrett-Macauley, Marson’s official biographer. ‘She had a loving but tough relationship with him and explored how young Jamaican women can break away from their patriarchal men in her later work, including her first play ' At What A Price.’

The International Woman Suffrage News reported Marson’s presence at the event as a ‘well-deserved success’ and Marson had good news to share: International Woman Suffrage News– 4 December 1936

Taught myself law from books borrowed from the public library. I achieved my bachelor’s degree in 1967 and can proudly say I became the first clerk of courts, then chief clerk of the court at Clarkenwell.

Una Marson returned to Jamaica that year. The International Women Suffrage News helps us to continue tracing Marson’s activity in Jamaica. In 1938, Marson’s play ‘Pocomania’ was performed. It was a brilliant success in Kingston. It is an important dramatic work which explores themes of identity. She also continued journalism by working for The Jamaica Standard. We discover more about her activities in Jamaica through the International Woman Suffrage News: International Woman Suffrage News– 1 April 1938 Prior to her first absence from Jamaica in 1933, Miss Marson had made great strides in the literary sphere of Jamaica. Her initial career engagement included serving as a secretary and a member of the editorial staff of the Daily Gleaner in the early 1920s. Thereafter, she established The Cosmopolitan, a monthly magazine (1929 – 1931) utilised as a platform for gender issues that affected women. She was the first woman in Jamaica to achieve this feat of publishing. To say women do not play a significant role in the arts sounds not only strange but problematic. This is sadly the case when speaking of the role women play in the arts in the Caribbean. Women are placed in “traditional” roles in the Caribbean such as wives, mothers and homemakers but their counterparts are placed in the role of breadwinner. The role of the Caribbean woman has been steadily changing and evolving. Women are finding themselves increasingly in the role of head of the household. As more and more men find themselves connected to organized crime and imprisoned the role of the woman must evolve and cease being silent. Caribbean Voices hosted writers, musicians and political figures … Seroca Davis as Marson. Photograph: Brian Benson/BBC/Douglas Road Productions/Brian BensonMarson, Una. Letter to the Committee of Jamaica Save the Children’s Fund. MS1944C, National Library of Jamaica. This Women’s History Month, as we celebrate and reflect on struggles for the emancipation of women, I find it only appropriate to resurrect the cultural and political contributions of Una Marson. According to Lloyd W. Brown, Marson was the “first female poet of significance to emerge in West Indies literature” and yet ironically, she is the forgotten mother of Caribbean poetry. In many ways, Una Marson’s work has influenced both men and women Caribbean creative writers who, like Marson, have used literature to advocate cultural and political transformation in their home and host countries. Brathwaite, Kamau. History of the Voice: The Development of Nation Language in Anglophone Caribbean Poetry. London: New Beacon, 1984. Brown Baby Blues” is a poem about perhaps the most important job a woman will ever have in her life and that is the job of motherhood and all it entails. The mother in this poem is faced with a type of dilemma only a small group of new mothers’ will ever face. That dilemma is explaining a world in which the child’s skin color will constantly come into question. The mother feels compelled to apologize to her newborn daughter for something no one has any control over. The brown skin which covers her beautiful baby girl will eventually, if not already be seen as a hindrance to her success in this world and her poor mother knows it. It’s as if she can see into the future and can dictate what the child’s life will consist of and it’s not pretty. In 1937, Marson wrote a poem called "Quashie comes to London", which is the perspective of England in a Caribbean narrative. In Caribbean dialect, quashie means gullible or unsophisticated. Although initially impressed, Quashie becomes disgusted with England because there is not enough good food there. The poem shows how, although England has good things to offer, it is Jamaican culture that Quashie misses, and therefore Marson implies that England is supposed to be "the temporary venue for entertainment". [20] The poem shows how it was possible for a writer to implement Caribbean dialect in a poem, and it is this usage of local dialect that situates Quashie's perspective of England as a Caribbean perspective.

a b DeCaires Narain, Denise, "Marson, Una Maud Victoria", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004. Nezahualcoyotzin: in xochitl in cuicatl / Nezahualcóyotl: su "flor y canto"(poesía náhuatl) y poemas del siglo xxi – inspirados en él Thirty years ago, I was teaching Women’s Literature at the University of the Virgin Islands (St. Croix) and searching for West Indian women’s texts. I had read Lloyd W. Brown’s assessment of Jamaican-born Una Marson (1905-1965) as “the earliest female poet of significance to emerge in the West Indies” ( West Indian Poetry, 1978), yet neither her poetry nor her plays were available—and scant biographical information existed either. With a National Endowment for the Humanities grant and later a Summer Bursary at Oxford, I traveled to Jamaica, London, and Washington, DC, piecing together the details of Marson’s life. Scholars in the US, England, and the Caribbean have expanded this recovery work and solidified Marson’s reputation; Delia Jarrett-Macauley published a biography, The Life of Una Marson, 1905-1965, in 1998. Foremost among these scholars is Alison Donnell from the University of Reading (UK), the editor of this long-awaited collection of Marson’s poems. Towards the Stars’. It was a collection of ‘ her poems of nature, love and life are spontaneous, simple and musical, and when she writes of her compatriots there is poignancy in her verses…They reveal deep sincerity and a joyous delight in singing.’In 1935, Una Marson became the editor of The Keys and focused on championing the works of female authors. The objective of The Keys was to Kat has reunited with IWM to investigate the lives of these extraordinary people to mark the 75th anniversary of the arrival of the Empire Windrush. Donnell, Alison, and Sarah Lawson Welsh. The Routledge Reader in Caribbean Literature. New York, NY: Routledge, 1996. As a playwright, Kat has written and performed two internationally staged solo plays, and two comedy shows. Raising Lazarus, Kat’s play dealing with the experiences of Caribbean soldiers in the First World War, continues to tour globally to critical acclaim, and formed part of the First World War centenary, featured at Imperial War Museum.