Derek Walcott
Derek Walcott
Sir Derek Alton Walcott, KCSL OBE OCCis a Saint Lucia poet and playwright. He received the 1992 Nobel Prize in Literature. He is currently Professor of Poetry at the University of Essex. His works include the Homeric epic poem Omeros, which many critics view "as Walcott's major achievement." In addition to having won the Nobel, Walcott has won many literary awards over the course of his career, including an Obie Award in 1971 for his play Dream on Monkey Mountain,...
ProfessionPoet
Date of Birth23 January 1930
horse stars block
I too saw the wooden horse blocking the stars.
stars trying study
I try to forget what happiness was, and when that don't work, I study the stars.
carry kevin knew point
We knew there was a point when Kevin would come through and carry us.
best carnival display fascinated host local musical premier sound sweet vast
I have always been fascinated by the musical talent, the calypso, the carnival and the sweet sound of pan, ... Trinidad was the best place to host the world premier and to display the vast local talent.
knows
He's just dominant. He knows how to play.
cat vases shelves
She's a rare vase, out of a cat's reach, on its shelf.
wind mind damn
Damn wind shift sudden as a woman mind.
sunset dark sea
I know when dark-haired evening put on her bright silk at sunset, and, folding the sea sidled under the sheet with her starry laugh, that there'd be no rest, there'd be no forgetting. Is like telling mourners round the graveside about resurrection, they want the dead back.
enough console
The classics can console. But not enough.
special language english-language
The English language is nobody's special property.
past long too-much
We make too much of that long groan which underlines the past.
white fire owl
Slowly my body grows a single sound, slowly I become a bell, an oval, disembodied vowel, I grow, an owl, an aureole, white fire poesia "Metamorfosi, I. Luna
heart mirrors letters
Love After Love all your life, whom you have ignored for another, who knows you by heart. Take down the love letters from the bookshelf, the photographs, the desperate notes, peel your own image from the mirror. Sit. Feast on your life.
turns
How can I turn from Africa and live?