Old ways are dying...

THE EDITOR, Madam:

THE POET Archibald McLeish wrote -

A world ends when its

metaphor has died

An age becomes an age,

allelse beside,

When sensuous poets,

in their pride invent

Emblems for the

soul's consent

That speak the meanings

men will never know

But man imagined

images can show:

It perishes when

those images, though seen,

No longer mean.

(The Metaphor)

Jamaica's metaphors are dying. They are dying amidst the flood of Americans that slowly but assuredly are supplementing them in the nation's consciousness.

While there is nothing new in our reception of Americans, what is new is how rapidly our old ways are fading.

It is obvious in our dress, speech, behaviour, values on our streets, radio, television and other areas of national life.

It is obvious in our collective denigration and rejection of things Jamaican. It manifests itself in the crisis of confidence that engulfs us. Lo and behold, the old ways are dying fast. The challenge now is whether we can muster the will to ebb this tide and restore our own metaphor to pride of place.

I am, etc.,

E. NAMLEK

Kingston 5

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