Derek Walcott Books

I had to read it a few times to understand what was really going on. Because it is written in a Creole dialect it was some what hard to understand, but if you re-read where you are confused you can easily figure it out. It's a very nice story about a poor, old, sad black man, and his yearning for home.

Walcott is a genius. These early works are among the first indications that he was to be a the literary master.

I did this book for my literature class and I thought it was vey interesting. It reminded me somewhat of Ralph Ellison's "Invisible Man". This book is vey interesting and is written by a man who is basically a minority where he is from due to his religion and up bringing. The book's main character is Makak who is ashamed of his identity as a black man and idealizes the moon because it is white. Eventually he learns to accept himself as he is.

This is a marvelous little book to be savoured at every chance and to be re-read as well. Its instructive for both the reader of poetry and the writer of poetry and every student of poetry should read this little masterpiece.It contains many insights and adds a much needed depth to the Frost that many may suspect is not there. Brodsky's erudite rendering of Frost as a student of Virgil makes me want to run back to Virgil and read other works by him besides the Aeneid and go to The Eclogues, also called Bucolics.

Brodsky, Heaney, and Walcott helped me hear the music of Frost's poetry. They don't analyze all that many poems but the insights they offer open the door to others. For example, I learned about Frost's idea of "Sentence-Sounds" in Brodsky's review of "Home Burial" and his idea of the "Sounds of Sense" in Heaney's discussion of "Desert Places". Then when I read Frost's "To a Thinker", which does not appear in "Homage to Frost", I came across the line "...From sound to sense and back to sound", and of course I recognized a familiar theme. If you like Frost, this book makes a nice companion reader.

If you need to read one critical examination of Robert Frost, buy this & read Joseph Brodsky's fantastic, accessible take on "Home Burial". What a great book this is--three fine poets examining a brilliant poet. But it is Brodsky who best holds to the Frost credo--he speaks clearly and plainly.

This book may seem to be a bit slow at first, but as you get into it further, Walcott's words really start to affect you. His sense of awareness of American perceptions of the Caribbean are dead on, and he exposes them for what they are. Most importantly, he address poetry in general, relating the poetry he writes to the poetry he sees around him. It is in many ways a fierce defense of the beauty and timelessness of both poetry, and the Caribbean. In just these short pages I found more food for thought and more things that have gotten me thinking than in many novels or other works I have read recently. Definitely worth it!

Almost 40 years ago my friend and mentor, Count Taylor, told me about Derek Walcott (poet, writer, watercolorist) but I'd not read Walcott until just now...a serious mistake.

THE ANTILLES: FRAGMENTS OF EPIC MEMORY, is just a small book but to read it is to step into another universe. Walcott applies layer upon layer of translucent watercolor pigment to an undulating and ever changing canvas...all to the purpose of separating the reader from her preconceptions.

Read this and you will never look at a cruise ship parked in a Caribbean harbor in the same way again.

5/24/00

Hamner's updated study of Derek Walcott is a great introduction to Walcott's ever expanding oeuvre. His views are balanced and magisterial. A great companion to this book is a chronological collection of essays, "Critical Perspectives on Derek Walcott", edited by Hamner himself.

Most critic of Walcott tend to fall prey to the dichotomy of folk poet versus literary humanist. Hamner avoids this pitfall by stressing the Walcott's vision of man as an exile, a castaway.

In the first chapter, Hamner surveys the social and cultural situations of West Indies out of which Walcott emerged. He also outlines his development phases and common theme. Once these foundations are sketched, he then breaks Walcott's works into five phases in the following chapters. Along this chronological approach, he shrewdly intersperses Walcott's poetry, plays and sometimes prose to illuminate his points. They are threaded lightly with Walcott's biography. The last chapter is reserved for studying Walcott's prose. The overall framework is excellent as the reader can appreciate Walcott's oeuvre like the lights refracted through a crystal.

Flipping through the pages, one hears Walcott's lines like waves lapping on the beach of time. Like the palm trees on the beach, Hamner's book offers calming shades and, now and then, some refreshing breeze.

(Footnote. The 2-page chronology of Walcott's life can be improved. e.g. In addition to the years when Walcott's works were published and performed, when were his marriages and divorces, the birth of his children ? I am not suggesting that one should dissect the works psychologically. These datelines may give the reader a fuller picture of Walcott.)

I took note of the name of Derek Walcott when he won the Nobel Prize for Literature some years back. I'm not one for poetry so I didn't go out looking for any of his books. However, while in his home island of St Lucia in the Carribean, I came across this book comprising two of his plays. The first, "Walker", was the story of a free Black man in Boston circa 1830. He is in the process of printing a pamphlet that advocates an uprising of slaves. Others try to change his mind and we get the gist of the man through these conversations. The message I got from the play is that violent methods leads to violent ends.

I got more out of the second play, "The Ghost Dance", in large part because I had coincidently just finished a book on the subject. That gave me an historical perspective that I didn't have of "Walker" (I had never heard of David Walker before). This play has a variety of characters that interact in a manner that bring insight to cultural conflicts. There are a number of relationships that fail, fall apart, or remain in unresolvable conflict. I appreciated the way the character and situations were woven together. I also appreciated that it all took place in my home state of North Dakota. It was a good, but not great, play. I couldn't help but notice Mr. Walcott's periodic use of metered rhyme in some of his dialogue. I guess it comes naturally for him. I'm glad I read these two plays but I won't be going out of my way to find more of his work. On the other hand, I WOULD like to return to St. Lucia.

This appears to be an important book about a fascinating poem. But the price, $75 for a short book, is an insult to people who love poetry. It assumes that only academics or people who have access to a university library should be able to read this book. I am going to avoid buying books from Routledge as much as possible until they rethink their pricing.

I hope the author continues to work and finds a new publisher, one that will price books so that the general public can buy them.

Omeros itself is a wonderfully deep and constantly changing poem, worth rereading.