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Derek Walcott (23 January 1930 / Castries / St Lucia)
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Derek Walcott OBE OCC is a Saint Lucian poet, playwright, writer and visual artist who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1992 and the T. S. Eliot Prize in 2011 for White Egrets. His works include the Homeric epic Omeros. Robert Graves wrote that Walcott "handles English with a closer understanding of its inner magic than most, if not any, of his contemporaries”.
Life
Early Life
Walcott was born and raised in Castries, Saint Lucia, in the West Indies with a twin brother, the future playwright Roderick Walcott, and a sister. His mother, a teacher, had a love of the arts who would often recite poetry. His father, who painted and wrote poetry, ... more »
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Popular Poems
- A City's Death By Fire
- A Far Cry From Africa
- After The Storm
- Blues
- Codicil
- Coral
- Dark August
- Egypt, Tobago
- Forest Of Europe
- In The Virgins
- Koening Of The River
- Love After Love
- Midsummer, Tobago
- Night in the Gardens of Port of Spain
Quotations
more quotations »-
''Statistics justify and scholars seize
Derek Walcott (b. 1930), Carribbean poet. A Far Cry from Africa (l. 7-10). . . Collected Poems, 1948-1984 [Derek Walcott]. (1986) Farrar, Straus a...
The salients of colonial policy.
What is that to the white child hacked in bed?
To savages, expendable as Jews?''
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''A wind is ruffling the tawny pelt
Derek Walcott (b. 1930), Carribbean poet. A Far Cry from Africa (l. 1-3). . . Collected Poems, 1948-1984 [Derek Walcott]. (1986) Farrar, Straus an...
Of Africa. Kikuyu, quick as flies,
Batten upon the bloodstreams of the veldt.''
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I who have cursed
Derek Walcott (b. 1930), Carribbean poet. A Far Cry from Africa (l. 28-33). . . Collected Poems, 1948-1984 [Derek Walcott]. (1986) Farrar, Straus ...
The drunken officer of British rule, how choose
Between this Africa and the English tongue I love?
Betray them both, or give back what they give?
How can ...
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''Again brutish necessity wipes its hands
Derek Walcott (b. 1930), Carribbean poet. A Far Cry from Africa (l. 22-23). . . Collected Poems, 1948-1984 [Derek Walcott]. (1986) Farrar, Straus ...
Upon the napkin of a dirty cause,''
A Far Cry From Africa is one of the best Caribbean poems I have ever read. It expresses in words, my thoughts about our Caribbean ancestral background. Dereck Walcott inspires me with his amazing writing style and I believe that his work is a marvelous accomplishment.
I must say that Derek Walcott unlocks a different door in Caribbean poetry. Not only does he expose our history and heritage but he does so with an ornate yet down-to-earth artisitc style. I have studied Olive Senior and Martin Carter not to mention his greatest 'oponent' Edward Brathwaite and somehow Walcott's poems tend to offer a more captivating appeal.
I've only just discovered Derek Walcott and it is such a pleasure to come across a poet of this calibre that I haven't read before. I don't understand half of it - but that's half the wonder of it!
i think its great that you guys have all of these poets on here because i had an english clkass project on poets and i wanted to do a west indian poet because i am from the west indies..