Sweet Jamaica!
The beautiful scenery and greenery of the Blue Mountains was breathtaking. Sweet Jamaica! Oh wondrous isle! Your silhouettes of hills and ocean lullabies From hedges of bougainvillaea To hibiscus delight Stretches your splendour over grandeurs might Often have I held your golden days Under your kaleidoscope, an infinity of rays And rejoice in your regal, rustic rocks Over piers and harbours where countries dock Silky winds may glide upon an ocean’s scent Over sugar blades and sober hills where hues of dawn relent And how oft have I gasped at a flurry of skies at medleys of bananas and coconut pride Sweet Jamaica Oh Caribbean eye We salute your cities and countrysides The highways and byways every corner and turn
Your glistening white beaches and galleries of fern From yam hills of Trelawny to melons of St. Bess churches and gardens on spectral soils rest From Rio Grande raft to Dunn’s River Fall Holland Bamboo breeze to Great Rose Hall Away from the verdor of Portland’s dew Lay western cottages kissed with blue Sweet Jamaica such gallantry of lands Of misty Blue Mountains and pristine sands Every rooster in morning’s glee Every river that rushes to sea Every veranda, backyards, lawns Every avenue, scheme and farm From grass roots to fields and the smile on your face breadfruit aroma and scotch bonnet taste From bridges and valleys of kim pupa lick Every turn of lime in a ‘lemonades’ mix Exotic Jamaica!
How do we forget Your frills of savour That piques our breath Ackee and salt fish, fritters, run dung, Fried dumpling, jerk chicken, patty and bun We salute you, Jamaica! From zinc roofs and mango walks hoisted houses and sorrel stalks From every machete held in hand And women by rivers with soaps and pans We salute you Jamaica Over your mountains of moistened green All of your villages, offices and streams Around Junction Road and down Spur Tree Hill Crocheted corn rows, your trucks and mills From a panoply of uniforms and an executive’s tie, splashes of youth where tapestries lie As flowers and hearts bow homage and pride Jamaica flaunts a flurry that beckons inside .....