NATURE

We have neither Summer nor Winter

Neither Autumn nor Spring
We have instead the days
When the gold sun shines on the lush green canefields –
Magnificiently,
The days when the rain beats like bullets on the roofs
And there is no sound but the swish of water in the
gullies
And trees struggling in the high Jamaica winds.
Also there are the days when leaves fade from off
guango trees
And the reaped canefields lie bare and fallow to the sun.
But best of all there are the days when the mango and
the logwood blossom
When the bushes are full of the sound of bees and the
scent of honey,
When the tall grass sways and shivers to the slightest
breath of air,
When the buttercups have paved the earth with yellow
stars
And beauty comes suddenly and the rains have gone
 Setting
The setting of the poem is Jamaica. It is an island located in the
Caribbean Sea, off the coast of Mexico and south of Florida U.S.A. It is
dominated by mountains and green forests. It is mainly an agricultural
country and its main export is sugar. It has tropical climate with rain
throughout the year. Jamaica lies in the hurricane belt and therefore
experiences sometimes powerful hurricanes.
 Description of the poem
• ‘we’ is used throughout the poem refers as the
Jamaicans
• The persona highlights the pleasant climate on the island
– the sun shines magnificently on the cane fields – on
rainy days the rain beats like bullets on roofs
• However, on days when the wind is strong, the trees
sway and the leaves fall
• The climate becomes pleasant again after
the rainy season
• This is when the trees blossom, swarm of bees are in the
bushes, the air is strongly scented with honey, the
breezy wind sways the tall grass, buttercups bloom
abundantly and cover the grass with yellow stars.
• The beauty of nature at its best.
 Worksheet 1
• This poem is full of nouns, adjectives and
verbs. This is because the poem is a
descriptive poem, expressing beauty and
nature.
• List down all the nouns, adjectives and
verbs in the poem.
 What is nouns?
• The part of speech that is used to
name a person, place, thing, quality,
or action
• Example, Abu, chair, Mexico, apple
 What is adjectives?
• Adjectives are words that describe or
modify another person or thing in the
sentence. The Articles — a, an, and the
— are adjectives.
• Example : the tall man, the kind woman
 What is verbs?
• Verbs are usually physical actions which
you can see somebody doing.
• Example: to run, to walk, to love, to have,
to hear