PQR: Poems, Quotes, Readings

Jamaica Market

by Agnes Maxwell-Hall, 1894

Honey, pepper, leaf-green limes,
Pagan fruit whose names are rhymes,
Mangoes, breadfruit, ginger-roots,
Granadillas, bamboo-shoots,
Cho-cho, ackees, tangerines,
Lemons, purple Congo-beans,
Sugar, okras, kola-nuts,
Fish, tobacco, native hats,
Gold bananas, woven mats,
Plantains, wild-thyme, pallid leeks,
Pigeons with their scarlet beaks,
Oranges, and saffron yams,
Baskets, ruby guava jams,
Turtles, goat-skins, cinnamon,
Allspice, conch-shells, golden rum.
Black skins, babel, and the sun
That burns all colours into one.

(Source to be verified), 1894.


Contact info: pfa@umich.edu
URL of current page:http://www-personal.umich.edu/~pfa/poemquot/jamaica.html
Return to index:PQR: Poems, Quotes, Readings
Last Update: January 16, 2003