Sign-In
Cart
Anansi's Drumbeat: Poems from Old Caribbean Tales
Paperback
General FictionLiterary Fiction
Currently unavailable to order
Please enter your email and a message will be sent to you when this product becomes available on our website.
Publisher: Independently Published
Published: Dec 25 2025
Pages: 80
Weight: 0.46
Height: 0.17 Width: 8.50 Depth: 11.00
Language: English
Anansi's Drumbeat: Poems from Old Caribbean Tales
by Callista Charlemagne-Daniel
When Anansi beats his drum, the whole island listens.
From forest paths and market squares to moonlit crossroads and children's circles, Anansi's Drumbeat invites readers into the living world of Caribbean folklore, where stories breathe, spirits linger, and wisdom often arrives disguised as mischief.
Across sixty lyrical poems, master trickster Anansi spins his web of words, carrying readers through laughter and danger, greed and generosity, shadow and song. Clever but flawed, greedy yet tender, Anansi outwits Tiger, bargains with Death, tangles with spirits, and, when he least expects it, teaches children lessons about courage, kindness, truth, and survival.
Rooted deeply in Caribbean oral tradition, these poems echo the rhythms of storytelling passed down through generations. Familiar folkloric figures, La Diablesse, Soucouyant, Papa Bois, Dwen, and Jumbie, move through the pages alongside everyday island life, reminding us that the seen and unseen have always shared space in Caribbean imagination.
Written in a voice that blends lyrical English with the cadence and sensibility of Creole speech, Anansi's Drumbeat honors the spoken word as cultural memory. Each poem stands alone yet forms part of a larger arc, tracing Anansi's journey from clever beginnings to reflective old age, from selfish tricks to moments of grace, and finally to the quiet legacy of stories that never truly end.
This collection is both playful and profound, inviting laughter while offering insight into power, resistance, morality, and community. It is a book for children who love stories, adults who remember them, educators seeking culturally grounded texts, and readers everywhere drawn to folklore that still feels alive.
Anansi's Drumbeat is not a retelling of old tales, it is a continuation of them. A reminder that stories survive because they adapt, travel, and wait patiently for new voices to speak them again.
Listen closely.
The drumbeat never stops.
Also in
Literary Fiction
Elizabeth Spencer: Novels & Stories (Loa #344): The Voice at the Back Door / The Light in the Piazza / Knights and Dragons / Stories
Spencer, Elizabeth
Hardcover
James Fenimore Cooper: The Leatherstocking Tales Vol. 1 (Loa #26): The Pioneers / The Last of the Mohicans / The Prairie
Cooper, James Fenimore
Hardcover
The Underworld U.S.A. Trilogy, Volume I: American Tabloid, the Cold Six Thousand; Introduction by Thomas Mallon
Ellroy, James
Hardcover
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Other Stories (Barnes & Noble Classics Series)
Stevenson, Robert Louis
Paperback
Johnny Panic and the Bible of Dreams: Short Stories, Prose, and Diary Excerpts
Plath, Sylvia
Paperback
The Patrick Melrose Novels: Never Mind, Bad News, Some Hope, and Mother's Milk
St Aubyn, Edward
Paperback