Derek Walcott, Nobel Laureates, Dies Aged 87

Hello Gentle Reader

Derek Walcott, the poet and playwright and Nobel Laureate (1992) died at his home in St. Lucia, at the age of 87, on Friday March 27. Walcott is highly regarded for his poetry which tackles both the microcosmic universe of his Caribbean homeland with its sparkling beaches, shimmering waters and oppressive sun; but he also framed his poems in historical context which often laced and exposed the brutal bondage of colonialism. Derek Walcott’s utilized different poetry forms to best showcase his themes and poetic language, from the short lyric to the epic. Poetry has been a part of Walcott’s life since he was young; his father (who died when Derek Walcott was an infant0 was a teacher, watercolour painter and poet, and his mother a school teacher, recited Shakespeare to him while he was just a child. At the age of 19 he had self-published his first collection of poems and sold them on street corners, before he went to study at the West Indies University on a scholarship. After studying Walcott would continue to publish poetry and plays, while he taught and lectured at universities. His poems are noted for discussing the almost paradise world of the Caribbean life, with its exotic blooming flowers and the livelihood of the sea, but the narrative is also quickly framed in historical context, where the discussion of the economies of such island life, was built on sugar plantations, forced labour and slavery. Paradise was also prison. In doing so however, Walcott was capable of pushing the Caribbean onto the literary map, and open the grander world into its beauty and colonial history, but also framing human experience as universal, not just limited to any geographical space. Derek Walcott is most famous for his epic poetic odyssey: “Omeros,” which re-envisions the classical Greek myth, to the Caribbean island of St. Lucia. It is often cited, this major epic of postmodernist epic poetry, would secure Derek Walcott’s Nobel in 1992, when he was awarded the prize with the following citation:

“For a poetic oeuvre of great luminosity, sustained by a historical vision, the outcome of a multicultural commitment.”

Derek Walcott is certainly a multicultural poet through and through. His allegiances reside with three distinct cultures: the Caribbean of his home, the English language as his tongue and pen, and Africa as his ancestor. Often Walcott struggles with which one he should belong to solely, before concluding he is the product of a multicultural spectrum.

Derek Walcott belongs to the great poetry renascence the Nobel experienced from 1980 – 1996, when great poets had achieved the great success the Nobel offers: those fellow poets are: Czesław Miłosz (1980), Joseph Brodsky (1987), Octavio Paz (1990), Derek Walcott (1992), Seamus Heaney (1995) and Wisława Szymborska (1996). Of the six laureates, Walcott is the last to pass.

Rest in Peace, Derek Walcott. Your poetry is admired, loved, and recited. It tackles the historical, the epic, the multicultural, and the ambiguities of the inedited, ancestry, history and the human experience; but no matter the sea shimmers as the sun rises.

Thank-you For Reading Gentle Reader

Take Care

And As Always

Stay Well Read

M. Mary