Derek Walcott: Estrangement and Isolation.

Critics are particularly concerned with feelings or estrangement and isolation, which has prompted the concept of the ‘creative exile’. Some critics suggest this is ‘a condition of voluntary removal from one’s native land, which is a premise for the pursuit of artistic goals and productivity, but which at the same time might induce a sense of alienation, loss and displacement’. From a post-colonial perspective Walcott’s poetry therefore has real relevancy given the ongoing sense of exile that is present within his work. Post-colonial critics ‘celebrate hybridity and ‘cultural polyvalency’’[1] thus making Walcott and his work of great interest given his dual heritage, and the disassociation he experiences due to him abandoning his motherland, St. Lucia, so as to pursue his career in the Western world. Moreover, Walcott’s frequent allusion to ‘Odysseus’, a symbol of isolation arguably employed as an embodiment of Walcott himself, increasingly enhances the sense of alienation that dominates his poetry. 

Written in 1969, ‘Homecoming: Anse la Raye’ can be interpreted as a semi-autobiographical poem, given the inclusion of the St. Lucian village where Walcott was born in its title. It depicts Walcott’s moment of homecoming following his time spent abroad – it is evident that he envisaged himself to be joyously greeted as an inspiration to his native community. However, he is rather met with a wretched, decaying world, entirely juxtaposing the one he has fabricated. Walcott’s description of the children, who seemingly mirror the landscape, as ‘spindly, sugar-headed children race … children race’, lays emphasis on the destitute reality of island life and its people’s poverty of existence. The grotesque, asyndetic list enhances the image of the children being starved of nourishment, metaphorically symbolising the island’s state of impoverishment as the land is famished of both wealth and innovation. Furthermore, the adjectives depict the children as almost skeletal, establishing a rather harrowing quality to the setting. As opposed to greeting him as one of their own, the children regard him as though he is a prophet, for instance, the speaker’s clothes allude to his wealth, implying that he is a ‘tourist’ rather than a native, given that wealth is scarce in his homeland. The division between himself and the community that he has left behind is further enhanced as it is stated that the speaker ‘seems a tourist’ thus, declaring him as different and unfamiliar, casting him as a stranger. The use of the noun ‘Tourist’ implies that this has become the speaker’s identifier which is woefully ironic given that this is his native homeland. Moreover, the copular verb ‘seems’ demonstrates the differences between what the speaker believes a tourist to look like, in comparison to what the child does – their visions are at odds with one another. This acts as a moment of painful realisation for the speaker, and perhaps subliminally Walcott himself given the semi-autobiographical nature of the poem, enhancing the sense of exile and isolation he feels from his place of origin. Arguably, the key line of the poem, ‘there are homecoming without the home’, is yet another moment of realisation for the speaker as he bleakly asserts his exile status. As argued by Ochillo, ‘The implication is that home has degenerated into an alien shore, and so homecoming has brought not the ecstasy kindled by memory, but emptiness’[2]. Similar to Walcott, in leaving the island and pursuing his career, the speaker has inadvertently created a division between himself and his home, exiling himself from his community. Furthermore, the disjointed, free verse form of the poem generates an impression of disjuncture, thereby mirroring the speaker’s division. Throughout the course of ‘Homecoming’, Walcott addresses various aspects of his motherland that have become mangled in his leaving, including both the ‘rotted leathery sea-grape leaves’ and ‘scorched sand’ – Walcott’s use of a putrid and decomposing lexis establishes an image of decay in the reader’s mind. Moreover, Walcott’s recurrent allusion to ‘sea-grapes’, a fruit indigenous to the Caribbean that have a bitter taste, stresses the speaker’s perpetual resentment at separation. The notion of returning to one’s homeland and being met with a world extraordinarily different to that he had anticipated, intensifies the feeling of estrangement as argued by Enotes, ^‘The gulfs that exist between the speaker and his past, the speaker and his island home, the speaker and the environment, the speaker and his people, and the speaker and himself all add to this alienation’[3]. Thus, reinforcing the notion that the predominant sentiment in Walcott’s work is that of exile and isolation from his community.

While the sense of exile is unequivocally apparent throughout the work of Walcott, much of his poems address his own internal struggle of identity - perhaps largely due to his hybridity both in terms of his biological heritage and his education – as opposed to alienation from his community. Written in 1965,’Codicil’ is composed with an entirely free structure and form – all verses differ in lengths, the rhyme is sporadic, and the frequent use of enjambment and caesuras create a disjointed rhythm. Walcott’s manipulation of structure and form thereby mirrors the speaker’s struggle with identity given its fragmentation. His internal conflict is also illustrated through his application of the noun ‘schizophrenic’, given that Schizophrenia often results in one’s disarranged thinking and behaviours. His disordered sense of allegiance, culturally speaking, is depicted through the use of sea imagery as he describes ‘this love of the ocean that’s self-love’ thus implying that this ‘love of the ocean’ is engrained into his Caribbean identity. However, it could also be said to link to the middle passage, a stage within the Atlantic slave trade triangle which forcibly relocated African communities to the Americas, therefore connecting the sea with the source of his people’s suffering. Hutchison argues that ‘Reflecting on his experience of negotiating his Caribbean culture, identity and his education and life in the USA, Derek Walcott writes ‘Schizophrenic, wrenched by two styles’ as he straddles two worlds, he experiences ‘disease’ within both’ [4]. Moreover, the fragility of the speaker’s identity is intensified through the graphic simile ‘peels from my hand like paper’, as it depicts an image of the literal changing and removing of his outward appearance, thus foregrounding his struggle with identity. While this may be a key leitmotif addressed in ‘Codicil’, the poem still acknowledges both Walcott and the speaker’s sense of exile, reflected through the speaker’s alienation and displacement. The imagery used of a lone figure on the beach that is ‘moonlit for miles’ depicts the speaker’s isolation from the rest of the island and subsequently his community. Thus, insinuating that the primary feeling throughout Walcott’s work remains that of separation, despite the allusion to his internal division with regard to his identity.

Similarly, ‘Sea-grapes’, written in 1976, could be interpreted as a semi-autobiographical account of the division Walcott experienced when he returned to his motherland. His experiences in the Western world, including his education in an English schooling institution, stripped him of his Caribbean culture, language, and lifestyle but he still considers St. Lucia his home, therefore generating a sense of alienation and exile from his motherland. The opening line of the poem, ‘sail which leans on light’, personifies the ship and employs it as a symbol of the traveller and their exile. The speaker has been away from home so long that he no longer feels any sense of belonging, similar to the experience of Odysseus. Odysseus, a mythological Greek hero who spent ten years trying to return to his homeland of Ithaca following the Trojan War, is employed by Walcott as the central image of ‘Sea-grapes’. He is a figure of exile to whom Walcott frequently alludes in his work, given that he can empathise with such feeling. Similar to Odysseus’ feeling of unfulfillment once he returns to Ithaca, Walcott yearns for homecoming, yet also adores the literature and classics of the Western world thus leading him to become a man with fractured desires. Walcott’s sense of alignment that he feels with Odysseus is also apparent in his other works including the narrative poem, ‘Omeros’, therefore laying further emphasis on the sense of alienation of which Homer’s Odysseus has come to symbolise as in ‘Sea-Grapes’. ‘Gnarled sour grapes’ also become a symbol of the speaker’s bitterness in returning to his homeland as he no longer feels accepted or welcomed by the community that he left behind. Walcott left the Caribbean to pursue his career in literature and become a spokesman for his motherland and its community, speaking out on the horrors they endured due to the Western colonisation of their land and peoples. Yet in doing so, he inadvertently exiled himself from the community he wished to represent and was often criticised for not writing his work in Creole or French Patois. ‘Sea-Grapes’ being written in the voice of an English speaker as opposed to his native language is of great significance as it further enhances his sense of isolation, particularly in terms of language, from his own community. The final line, ‘the classics can console. But not enough’ implies that Walcott finds consolation in classical literature, typically originating from English speaking countries, but they fail to eradicate his desire to return to his motherland. Despite the comfort brought to him by the ‘classics’, he still endures an overwhelming sense of displacement, resulting in a yearning to be reunited with his native community once more. Odysseus’ sense of unfulfillment could be said to mirror that of Walcott’s, as said by Hall ‘It is with the images of the cyclops’ boulder that Walcott reminds us that nothing – not even the glorious ancient Greek poetry – can ever compensate adequately for the pain of cultural loss and dispossession’[5], alluding to the longing for homecoming despite the consolation of the ‘classics’ that Walcott endures. Furthermore, the final line is written in iambic pentameter, recalling a more classical form of poetry taught to Walcott as a part of his colonial education, increasingly highlighting the division and alienation inflicted upon him due to his biological and cultural hybridity. The placement of this line being at the end of the poem implies that it is this notion of continuous estrangement and displacement that Walcott wishes to reflect onto the reader, therefore making this the ‘overriding feeling’ of the poem.

Whilst Walcott’s poetry does explore his own struggle of identity, compelling the reader to sympathise with Walcott himself as well as the speaker of ‘Codicil’ due to the internal strife they endure as a result of their cultural hybridity. However, the speaker’s struggle with identity culminates in their feeling of estrangement from their own community, as depicted in the image of the lone figure on the beach. This alienation is similarly present in both ‘Homecoming: Anse la Raye’ and ‘Sea-Grapes’ given the lack of belonging that the respective speakers of both poems experience following their return to their motherland and native communities. Therefore, concluding that the predominant feeling in Walcott’s poetry is that of exile and isolation from one’s community.

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[1] Barry, P. (2002) Beginning Theory, 2^nd ed., Manchester University Press, pp 198-200.

[2] Ochillo, Y. (1989) Journal of West Indian Literature, Vol. 3, No. 2.

[3] Enotes, (2018).

[4] Hutchison, Y. (2013) South African Performance and the Archives of Memory, Manchester University Press.

[5] Hall, Edith. (2012) The Return of Ulysses: A Cultural History of Homer’s Odyssey, I.B.Tauris.