Derek Walcott Summary

Biography EssayBy the time In a Green Night first made its modest international appearance in 1962, Derek Walcott had already gained preeminence as a poet and playwright in the West Indies. Over the... Read more

For some forty years Derek Walcott has been the preeminent poet and playwright of the West Indies. In spite of his international awards (including an O.B.E. in 1972) and the accolades of such peers as... Read more

In the following conversation, conducted at the time of the New York production of Dream on Monkey Mountain, Walcott elucidates the play's themes and discusses the person who inspired the chara... Read more

In the essay below, Peters analyzes Walcott's depiction of madness in his characters as a response to the clash between European, African, and New World cultures. Madness in the works of Derek ... Read more

Dream on Monkey Mountain received its New York debut on 14 March 1971 in a production by the Negro Ensemble Company (NEC) at the St. Mark's Playhouse. In the following assessment of the premier... Read more

Oliver declares Dream on Monkey Mountain a "masterpiece " and praises its "beauty, imagination, humor, and vigor." The Dream on Monkey Mountain, at the St. Marks, is an ent... Read more

In the essay below, Fox traces the theme of dreams and the imagination in Dream on Monkey Mountain. —Dream. Ona nonday I sleep. I dreamt of a somday. Of a wonday I shall wake. [James Joyce, Fi... Read more

In the following essay, Trueblood discusses poems from multiple volumes of Walcott's poetry, including In a Green Night, The Castaway and Other Poems, The Gulf, Another Life, and Sea Grapes. Th... Read more

In the following essay, Bensen examines the centrality of painting and imagery in Walcott's Midsummer. An island of obsessive beauty, a people impoverished but rich in their cultural heritage f... Read more

The following interview focuses on Walcott's epic poem, Omeros. [Presson]: The last time we talked you made much of what Omeros is not, and so what would you say it is? [Walcott]: It's l... Read more

In the following essay, Hirsch offers a positive assessment of Walcott's career as a poet and playwright. There is a force of exultation, a celebration of luck, when a writer finds himself a wi... Read more

In the following essay, Wieland explores recurring allusions to mythological and fictional themes and characters in Walcott's body of work. On the dust jacket of Another Life, George Lamming is... Read more

In the following essay, Lock presents an analysis of the depiction of women in the language and structure of Walcott's Omeros. In reading Omeros we are struck, as we are in the Iliad, by the si... Read more

In the following essay, Shullenberger compares Walcott's epic poem Omeros to Homer's Iliad. Although we tend to assign the epic to the literary past as a bygone genre, Derek Walcott�... Read more

In the following essay, Okpewho examines Walcott's themes of journey, voyage, and cultural identity within the context of African Caribbean literary discourse. I In exploring Derek Walcott�... Read more

In the following interview, Walcott discusses his formative experiences and cultural influences on Saint Lucia, his views on the development and multicultural atmosphere of the Caribbean, his work as ... Read more

In the following review, Pettingell offers a positive assessment of The Bounty. Derek Walcott established himself as the Homer of the West Indies in 1990 with Omeros, his Caribbean retelling of The Od... Read more

In the following review of The Bounty, Sansom criticizes Walcott's tendency toward poetic ostentation, verbosity, and excessive exultation. They call him Mister Bombastic: ‘Because he is... Read more

In the following positive review, King praises Walcott's imagery and verse in The Bounty. In recent volumes of Derek Walcott's poetry “light” is an encompassing term for th... Read more

In the following essay, Thieme provides an overview of the critical reaction to Walcott's work over a period of five decades, including a discussion of notable publications that have contribute... Read more

In the following review, Noor offers a positive assessment of What the Twilight Says, though expresses concern over Walcott's failure to challenge the vocabulary and prejudices of European impe... Read more

In the following excerpt, Gundy compliments Walcott's prose in What the Twilight Says, praising the work's “sharp and stimulating analyses.” At a mundane banquet long ago I... Read more

In the following essay, Lock discusses the problematic aesthetic representation of the female subject in Western literary tradition and in Walcott's evocation of Helen in Omeros. In reading Ome... Read more

In the following review, Kirsch provides an overview of Walcott's life and writing through a discussion of Bruce King's biography, Derek Walcott: A Caribbean Life, and offers a positive ... Read more

In the following review, Benfey offers a mixed assessment of Omeros, finding shortcomings in the volume's ineffective “imaginative journeys” and unusual metrical patterns. In one ... Read more

In the following positive review, Breslow praises Walcott's stage adaptation of Homer's Odyssey. Only a talent as prodigious as that of Derek Walcott (who received the 1992 Nobel Prize i... Read more

In the following excerpt, Bayley offers a positive assessment of The Bounty, referring to Walcott as “a poet of singular honesty.” What is the nature of the difference between poetry and... Read more

Critical Essay by William Logan "That sail which leans on light, / tired of islands, / a schooner beating up the Caribbean // for home" [from Sea Grapes] indicates the extraordinary acui... Read more

Critical Essay by Benjamin Demott Derek Walcott's superb new collection ["The Star-Apple Kingdom"] is described by its publishers as an "odyssey," and justly. The bo... Read more

Critical Essay by John Simon [Remembrance] is typical poet's theater. Using the hoary framing device of the interview, it has A. P. Jordan, an aging schoolteacher, relive episodes from his past... Read more

Critical Essay by Selden Rodman Since the death of Robert Lowell, there has been no poet writing in English who combines vernacular and the grand manner so successfully as Derek Walcott…. What ... Read more

Critical Essay by Hugo Williams If the most beautiful thing in the world is inherited wealth, Derek Walcott's poetry is rich. He has none of the self-made man's frugality. He is a natura... Read more

Critical Essay by Peter Bland Derek Walcott has been alternating for some years between his native West Indies and America. Meanwhile he has produced a steady flow of fine discursive poems—Sea-... Read more

Critical Essay by Alan Jenkins [Derek Walcott] dedicates many of the poems in The Fortunate Traveller to, presumably, friends—from Joseph Brodsky to Susan Sontag—but his dedications have... Read more

Critical Essay by Edward Baugh Derek Walcott has always had, even in his rawest apprenticeship, a head for metaphor. From the merest pastiche, the occasional and wholly original metaphor would burst t... Read more

Critical Essay by Samuel Omo Asein Walcott's treatment of the theme of death and the inscrutable ultimate power that governs the universe, and his moral statements on the tussle between the God... Read more

Critical Essay by Robert D. Hamner [The] study of Walcott's career as a dramatist must begin with the play he regards as his first, Henri Christophe—and it is written in verse. (p. 52) T... Read more

Critical Essay by Nicholas Bromell [The Fortunate Traveller] shows that a poet can deal in an illuminating way with … [the] problems of personal identity, aesthetic choice, and political commit... Read more

Derek Walcott is from the island of St. Lucia, an island which was under British Colonialism until 1979. The subject of colonialism is one that affects him personally with his mixed identity and his u... Read more