I Is a Long Memoried Woman

I Is A Long Memoried Woman, a collection by Guyanese poetess Grace Nichols, was first published in 1983 and a winner of the Commonwealth Poetry Prize. Nichols’ work develops the story of an anonymous African-Caribbean woman as she recounts the cruelty of slavery and its crippling effects on body, mind, and spirit. The narrator’s story is told in a rich language, which compliments the form to result in a rhythmic musicality reminiscent of spiritual slave songs. The collection of poems is divided into five sections, each an extended snapshot of the narrator’s life, and provides a view on slavery that cannot be delivered through a textbook, such as African compliance for the slave trade and being raped and impregnated by her slaveholder.