Linton Kwesi Johnson

2 Poems by Linton Kwesi Johnson

1.   “Seasons of the Heart”

I loved how Johnson contrasted life with the seasons of the year in this poem.  It was very easy to understand what he was saying and the whole thing flowed very naturally and made sense.  Two lines in particular that I really liked were “life is the greatest teacher, love is the lesson to be learnt” – which shows that in order to learn things, you need to live life.  It is also important to note the structure of the poem.  Each of the four stanzas becomes bigger as the poem progresses.  I also liked Johnson’s use of adjectives to describe each season (for example, “blossoms of spring”, “autumn’s brown” and “icy arrows of winter’s sting”).  Overall, this poem was written in proper English and not in a Jamaican tone, as with Johnson’s other poems in the book. 

2.  “Inglan is a Bitch”

This is a totally different poem than “Seasons of the Heart” and contains many spelling errors that are not correct in English grammar.  It is written in a Jamaican dialogue, with “Inglan” meaning “England”, and “andahgroun” meaning “underground”.  I didn’t find this poem to be very poetic and more of Johnson describes “Inglan” as being a terrible place and describing his experiences there.  It took a while to read as some of the lines had to be reread in order to understand the strong tone of which it was written.  Johnson’s intentional use of spelling words the way he does illustrates his Jamaican heritage and linguistics.