Derek+Walcott

Tamara Finney DEREK WALCOTT POETRY PROJECT ANALYSIS



__Biography__: Derek Walcott is an amazing poet. He began writing and getting recognized at age 18 .He was born in St. Lucia and he has had lots of influences from all sort ethnicities. I noticed reading his poems that he is an adventurous man and loves to talk about other cultures and what they do .I feel he loves to travel to different places since where he grew up had major influences on him and his poems. With Walcott time is of the essence while reading up on him I noticed lots of his poems are written in free verse. HIs usage of poetic devices are very strong his usage of imagery is wildly used and the meter of his poems are usually written in iambic meters. A rhyme scheme in his poems are very rare but he uses assonance in his poems to give the reader the mood of how they should feel reading his poems. Overall, I enjoyed his poems and encourage others to study his work and the influences it has on people.



Analysis: In this poem ,Walcott doesn't mention any characters ,but by the usage of the words "I" and "my", I can tell Walcott is more than likely the character of this poem, although he may not be. It seems he's visiting Tabago  in the summertime.Hence the name of the poem " MidSummer " it's shows that his summer is almost over,also showing that time is passing him by and he's only getting older.By the imagery provided in the poem ,you can tell it's taking place in a nice area with great weather ,perhaps the Caribbean .I noticed a lot of Walcott's poems are about traveling poems and adventures.Audiences that Walcott is trying to appeal to would be younger people of all diversities, I feel he is trying to tell them to get out there to live and explore other places , because everything comes to an end.The tone of this poem was sad and relaxing near the end of the poem .Also, I noticed how Walcott separated the poem into 2 lines at a time to emphasize the strong feelings he feels about his time winding down .Also, I caught a bit of Alliteration in lines 5 and 6 when he stated "Scorched yellow palms from the summer -sleeping house". The meter of this poem seems to iambic .The poem doesn't really rhyme but the usage of repetition in lines 8 and 9 creates an assonance, which creates a sound of despair while still having a sense of relaxation. Also, in lines 2,3, and 4 there are spondees which creates a stressed sound to tell the reader these things are important and to me it was Walcott exaggerating on the scenery ,which is why the imagery in this poem is so strong. Overall I enjoyed the poem, because it created a sense of relaxation for me and the theme of nature and time, though simple in nature, have the biggest of impacts in human life as both are limited. [|__http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=video&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwiX-oeNxsDKAhVEeSYKHQXeDAQQtwIIJTAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Ftravel%2Fvideo%2F2013%2Foct%2F01%2Ftour-of-tobago-video&usg=AFQjCNHBU3ZuasIOFaiHKLa1lDMWA_PNdg&sig2=MruqdZY4Sgl7EGw8GFknmw__]



__Analysis__: This poem is about self-love and self acceptance. Also, with Walcott being the way he is i feel that this poem is to appeal to everyone and themselves, because at the end of the day all you really have is yourself.The idea behind the poem is to seek love in ones, ways for the person to get rid of the love for the other person. It is urged the person to take out the love letters, photograph, desperate notes that he may have written or which carry the memories of his past love and remove them .By removing these symbols Walcott wants to free the reader from the burden of a past relationship which will come in his way of self-m love if he doesn't get rid of it.Also, the person should try to imbibe self love by capturing his own lost self -image from the mirror.It is a symbolic way to suggest that the person must start thinking well about his own self and gain a sense of self reespect.The central idea of the poem is around the reader, because it's about someone who has disliked him and now he realizes he has to be what he wants to be rather than others. The poem doesn't have a rhyme scheme but the meter of the poem is written in iamb, and its seems to be free verse. Walcott repeats several words more than often throughout this poem. For example in line 8 the repetition of give: " Give wine. Give bread. Give back to your heart." This particular line stood out to me, because when I see wine and bread I allude back to The Bible and communion , and when you take communion its a cleanse for yourself and this is what I get out of this poem. The assonance in this poem occurs throughout in lines 4,8, and 13 with the repetition of the vowel sounds creates a mood for the readers to feel to urge to love themselves and get a deeper connection with themselves rather than someone else or the world. [|__https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=video&cd=5&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwiwiYSZz8DKAhVJYyYKHeNyBbYQtwIILTAE&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3D_rltojO-WxA&usg=AFQjCNE1KJ7SX_YqINhxIjnR1HkXBEXhXQ&sig2=6lvltp0OnwnLKKAtRR87mQ__]

"The Sea is History"

 Where are your monuments, your battles, martyrs? Where is your tribal memory? Sirs, in that gray vault. The sea. The sea has locked them up. The sea is History.First, there was the heaving oil, heavy as chaos; then, likea light at the end of a tunnel,the lantern of a caravel, and that was Genesis. Then there were the packed cries, the shit, the moaning:Exodus. Bone soldered by coral to bone, mosaics mantled by the benediction of the shark's shadow,that was the Ark of the Covenant. Then came from the plucked wires of sunlight on the sea floorthe plangent harp of the Babylonian bondage, as the white cowries clustered like manacles on the drowned women,and those were the ivory bracelets of the Song of Solomon, but the ocean kept turning blank pageslooking for History. Then came the men with eyes heavy as anchors who sank without tombs,brigands who barbecued cattle, leaving their charred ribs like palm leaves on the shore, then the foaming, rabid mawof the tidal wave swallowing Port Royal, and that was Jonah, but where is your Renaissance?Sir, it is locked in them sea sands out there past the reef's moiling shelf, where the men-o'-war floated down;strop on these goggles, I'll guide you there myself. It's all subtle and submarine, through colonnades of coral,past the gothic windows of sea fans to where the crusty grouper, onyx-eyed, blinks, weighted by its jewels, like a bald queen;and these groined caves with barnacles pitted like stone are our cathedrals,and the furnace before the hurricanes: Gomorrah. Bones ground by windmills into marl and cornmeal,and that was Lamentations - that was just Lamentations, it was not History; then came, like scum on the river's drying lip, the brown reeds of villages mantling and congealing into towns,and at evening, the midges' choirs, and above them, the spires lancing the side of Godas His son set, and that was the New Testament.Then came the white sisters clapping to the waves' progress, and that was Emancipation - jubilation, O jubilation - vanishing swiftly as the sea's lace dries in the sun,but that was not History, that was only faith, and then each rock broke into its own nation;then came the synod of flies, then came the secretarial heron, then came the bullfrog bellowing for a vote,fireflies with bright ideas and bats like jetting ambassadors and the mantis, like khaki police,and the furred caterpillars of judges examining each case closely, and then in the dark ears of fernsand in the salt chuckle of rocks with their sea pools, there was the sound like a rumour without any echoof History, really beginning.

Walcott explicates on the concept of de-capitalizing history.He says "The word called history is the question I'm talking about the idea of history becoming a deity, a force, as much as science has become a deity." Walcott objects to history becoming an inaccessible force that "is" and wants to replace it with something that " does"." The Sea is History" by Walcott uses an enormous amount of literary and Biblical references.For example, Walcottreference to Genesis and Exodus books of the Bible in the old testament.Gensis was the signal to the beginning of everything and its creation.with Exodus beginning the ending or closure.throughout the poem ,he connects the suffering and historical moments of Jew, Christian with the African sufferings.Hence the name of the poem "The Sea is History " ,tells how the boats of colonizers took along Africans, and they died and was thrown into the sea.THhis entire poem is about how history Isn't behind us its in front of us, which so states the last line in the poem " History ,reallybeginning". There is several metaphors and imagery ,but really this whole poem alludes back to thee Bible itself. It doesn’t really have a rhyme scheme but the repetition in stanza 22 creates a assonance for a sound to sorrow to let the reader know this subject for him.

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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: "Segoe UI",Tahoma,Verdana,"Sans-Serif"; font-size: 8px; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="NormalTextRun SCX262734708" style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Calibri,Sans-Serif; font-size: 14.66px;">" Blues"

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: "Segoe UI",Tahoma,Verdana,"Sans-Serif"; font-size: 8px; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="NormalTextRun SCX262734708" style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Calibri,Sans-Serif; font-size: 14.66px;">Those five or six young guys lunched on the stoop that oven-hot summer night whistled me over. Nice and friendly. So, I stop. MacDougal or Christopher Street in chains of light. A summer festival. Or some saint's. I wasn't too far from home, but not too bright for a nigger, and not too dark. I figured we were all one, wop, nigger, <span class="SpellingError SCX262734708" style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Calibri,Sans-Serif; font-size: 14.66px;">jew <span class="NormalTextRun SCX262734708" style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Calibri,Sans-Serif; font-size: 14.66px;">, besides, this wasn't Central Park. I'm coming on too strong? You figure right! They beat this yellow nigger black and blue. Yeah. During all this, scared on case one used a knife, I hung my olive-green, just-bought sports coat on a fire plug. I did nothing. They fought each other, really. Life gives them a few <span class="SpellingError SCX262734708" style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Calibri,Sans-Serif; font-size: 14.66px;">kcks <span class="NormalTextRun SCX262734708" style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Calibri,Sans-Serif; font-size: 14.66px;">, that's all. The spades, the spicks. My face smashed in, my <span class="SpellingError SCX262734708" style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Calibri,Sans-Serif; font-size: 14.66px;">bloddy <span class="NormalTextRun SCX262734708" style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Calibri,Sans-Serif; font-size: 14.66px;"> mug pouring, my olive-branch jacket saved from cuts and tears, I crawled four flights upstairs. Sprawled in the gutter, I remember a few watchers waved loudly, and one kid's mother shouting like 'Jackie' or 'Terry,' 'now that's enough!' It's nothing really. They don't get enough love. You know they wouldn't kill you. Just playing rough, like young Americans will. Still it taught me <span class="SpellingError SCX262734708" style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Calibri,Sans-Serif; font-size: 14.66px;">somthing <span class="NormalTextRun SCX262734708" style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Calibri,Sans-Serif; font-size: 14.66px;">about love. If it's so tough, forget it. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: "Segoe UI",Tahoma,Verdana,"Sans-Serif"; font-size: 8px; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;"> [|__Derek Walcott__]

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: "Segoe UI",Tahoma,Verdana,"Sans-Serif"; font-size: 8px; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="NormalTextRun SCX262734708" style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Calibri,Sans-Serif; font-size: 14.66px;">Blues by Derek Walcott is an interesting poem about racism and the violence that comes with it.This poem is really in detail about how Walcott possibly feels about the racism.Walcott uses a lot of imagery, because of the topic he has to include some sort of picture like when he said they will beat the boy black and blue .In the this stanza Walcott stated " I hung my olive-green ,just -bought sports coat on a fire plug." Doesn't have any rhyme scheme to it so it be went it is that this issue be recognized.THe metaphors throughoutshow the comparison of how minorities got treated by Americans I this time period and vice versa.There is also lots of assonance in this poem ,but I really want to exaggerate on the imagery see I feel that since this poem is about a touchy subject, by allowing all this imagery into the reader will understand better. I can connect to this poem, because I am a minority but I cannot image being in this situation ,I got to give it to the main character,because the mistreatment wouldn't have flied with me, but overall I feel this poem out of all the poems I chose I have a deeper connection with this one. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: "Segoe UI",Tahoma,Verdana,"Sans-Serif"; font-size: 8px; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="NormalTextRun SCX262734708" style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Calibri,Sans-Serif; font-size: 14.66px;">http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=video&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwj67oiJyuPKAhVHPCYKHU5XBIkQtwIIHTAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.poemhunter.com%2Fpoem%2Fblues%2F&usg=AFQjCNEwlO98QELDwp-1Gqkk_vH7afeaYQ

<span class="NormalTextRun SCX178509146" style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Calibri,Sans-Serif; font-size: 14.66px;">__Work Cited__: //Web.05 Feb.2016 <[|www.poemhunter.com] › Derek Walcott//. Web.

Web.05 Feb.2016. <www.poetryfoundation.org › Poems & Poets>.

Web. 05 Feb. 2016. <www.enotes.com › Study Guides › Derek Walcott>.

[|__www.google.com__]