Helen of the West Indies

The setting of Omeros ranges from the past to the present in the Caribbean, Africa, North America and Europe, but the constant center is Walcott's native island of St. Lucia. St. Lucia is the second largest of the Windward group of the Lesser Antilles. Small and insignificant as it may appear among so many islands, it has a remarkably colorful history. The population in 1990 was 151,00, comprised of 90.3% African descent, 5.5% mixed, 3.2% East Indian, 0.8% European. Early attempts at European settlement were undertaken in the sixteenth century. Largely because of its strategic location and its fine harbors, St. Lucia rapidly became a pawn in Europe's imperial expansion. The island was passed between England and France fourteen times before it was finally ceded to England by the Treaty of Paris in 1814. As a result of the martial and legal contention, St. Lucia has been called the Gibraltar...