Sir Derek Alton Walcott was born in Castries, Saint Lucia. He was a West Indian artist and dramatist noted for works that investigate the Caribbean social experience. He got the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1992.
Walcott was taught at St. Mary’s College in Saint Lucia. He then went to the University of the West Indies in Jamaica. He started composing verse at an early age, educated at schools in Saint Lucia and Grenada. He contributed articles and surveys to periodicals in ‘Trinidad and Jamaica’.
Creations of his plays started in Saint Lucia in 1950, and he studied theater in New York City in 1958–59. He lived from that point in Trinidad and the United States, educating for part of the year at Boston University.
Walcott was most popular for his verse, starting with ‘In a Green Night: Poems 1948–1960’ in 1962. This book is a regular of his initial verse in its festival of the Caribbean scene’s characteristic excellence. The section in ‘Selected Poems’ in 1964, ‘The Castaway’ in 1965, and ‘The Gulf’ in 1969 is correspondingly rich in style and incantatory in state of mind.
In these Walcott communicates his sentiments of individual confinement, got between his European social direction and the dark people societies of his local Caribbean. ‘Another Life’ in 1973 is a book-length self-portraying poetical work.
In ‘Sea Grapes’ in 1976 and ‘The Star-Apple Kingdom’ in 1979, Walcott utilizes a tenser, progressively affordable style to look at the profound social divisions of language and race in the Caribbean. ‘The Fortunate Traveler’ in 1981 and ‘Midsummer’ in 1984 investigate his own circumstance as a dark author in America who has got progressively alienated from his Caribbean country.
Of Walcott’s around 30 plays, the most popular is ‘Dream on Monkey Mountain’, a West Indian’s mission to guarantee his personality and his legacy. ‘Ti-Jean and His Brothers’ in 1958 in view of West Indian folklore about siblings who look to overwhelm the Devil. ‘Pantomime’ in 1978 is an investigation of pilgrim connections through the Robinson Crusoe story. ‘The Odyssey: A Stage Version’ came in 1993. A considerable lot of Walcott’s plays utilize topics from dark society culture in the Caribbean.
A Short Biography of Derek Walcott
Sir Derek Alton Walcott was a playwright and poet. He was born on January 23rd, 1930. He was Castries. It is located in Saint Lucia in the West Indies. His parents were Warwick Walcott and Alix. He had two siblings including one twin brother and a sister. His family was basically an English family of African Descent.
His mother served as a teacher and she was keenly interested in arts and poetry. His father was a painter but by profession, he was a civil servant. Derek Walcott`s father died when Derek was only a boy of one year. His schooling took place at a Methodist school where his mother served as a teacher.
In the early days of his life, he received the training of painting. He was tutored by Harold Simmons in painting. Later on in his life, Walcott`s paintings were exhibited in New York at Anita Shapolsky Gallery.
But his interest in writing increased with the passage of time. He was influenced by modernist poets. Derek Walton published his very first poem when he was only 14 years old. His first poem was a Miltonic poem of religious nature. This was published in ‘The Voice of St Lucia’ newspaper. This poem was highly criticized by critics and was labeled as blasphemous. Around his teenage, he had published two collections of poems.
These publications were made with the help of his mother. One collection was ’25 Poems’ published in 1948 and the other was ‘Epitaph for the Young: XII Cantos’ in 1949. The expenses of these books were covered with the sale of these books to his friends and close circle.
Once he completed his schooling at St. Mary’s College, he got a scholarship. This scholarship was for study at the University College of the West Indies in Kingston Jamaica.
He completed his graduation in 1953. Afterward, he went to Trinidad. He started his career as a teacher, critic, and journalist. In 1959, he established the Trinidad Theatre Workshop. He remained very active with the board of directors of this theatre workshop.
He published another collection of poems ‘In a Green Night: Poems’ in 1962. This collection dealt with the history of the Caribbean in the pre and post-colonialist eras. This book received universal recognition. In 19170, he published a play under the title of ‘Dream on Monkey Mountain.’ This play was aired in America by NBC-TV. The Negro Ensemble Company also produced this play in 1971. This play received an Obie Award for the best play.
In 1981, he got an opportunity to teach at Boston University in the United States of America. While working there, he established the Boston Playwrights` Theatre. In 1981, he was awarded a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship. He taught at Boston University for over two decades. During this phase of life, he published several books of plays and poetry. In 2007, he retired from Boston University. During his stay at Boston, he became acquainted with a number of literary giants, and with some of them, he became a close friend as well.
In 1992, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. A year ago, he had published his long epic poem ‘Omeros.’ He became the second person from the Caribbean to receive this award. The first person to receive this award was Saint-John Perse in 1960. In 2004, he also received an Anisfield-Wolf Book Award for lifetime achievement.
In 2004, he published his book ‘The Prodigal.’ This book won the T.S. Elliott Prize.
In 1981, he was accused by a Harvard sophomore of sexual harassment. The allegation was that he sexually advanced towards her but she refused to do so. Thus, he gave her only a C grade in the exam. In 1996, he was accused by another student from Boston University of sexual harassment.
He was a strong candidate to get the position of Oxford Professor of Poetry. But he withdrew this because of accusations of sexual harassment.
During his lifetime, he published more than a dozen plays. These plays were produced by the Trinidad Theatre Workshop. A majority of these plays deal with the post-colonial period of the West Indies.
Derek Walcott got married to Fay Moston. This marriage took place in 1954. Fay Moston was a secretary. In 1959, she got a divorce from him. The couple had one son. Later on, he became a renowned painter, Peter Walcott, in Saint Lucia. He married for the second time in 1962. This time he got married to Margaret Maillard. She served as an almoner in a hospital.
The couple had two daughters. But she also got divorced from him in 1976. In 1976, he married for the third time. This time he married an actress. She was Norline Metivier. This couple also divorced in 1993.
Derek Walcott died on March 17th, 2017. He died in his home that is in Saint Lucia. At the time of his death, he was 87 years old. His funeral service took place on March 25 at the Cathedral Basilica of the Immaculate Conception in Castries. He was buried at Morne Fortune.
Derek Walcott’s Writing Style
Different parts of the style of Walcott are the utilization of similar sounding word usage. This enormously adds to the sentiment of redundancy and the submitted utilization of rhyme and beat. Critics also explore the utilization of metonymy and implication as a major aspect of the enhanced and rich style of Walcott. Akuso Solomon inspects the allusiveness of Walcott’s verse and recognizes significant impacts that his verse insinuates, for example, Baudelaire, Gauguin, Cesaire, Joyce, Homer, Wordsworth, and Rhys.
Rai accepts that one of the key pointers of Walcott’s style is the surrendering of dead allegories, which are frequently rehashed representations in European writing. He further recognizes the uniqueness of his language as a dissent against European standards by testing the syntax of the English language and the utilization of creoles.
Rai additionally looks at the utilization of symbolism as Walcott’s unassailable strong point. He completely declares that with the assistance of pictures, Walcott has been fruitful in making a rich printed thickness which adds to the graceful magnificence of the sonnet. This also reveals his one-of-a-kind lovely ability which makes him stand apart as an exceptionally capable writer in the circle of world verse.
Derek Walcott’s creativity in topical and elaborate style has earned him an indisputable spot in the abstract pantheon of the Caribbean world. Critics have recognized ‘Omeros’ as his groundbreaking work that was referred to for his Nobel Laureate.
Form and Structure
His poems are usually organized into long stanzas. He uses free verse form in his poetry. For example, ‘Parades Parades’ is organized into two long refrains, utilizing free stanza. There is a move in tone from the first to the second. The first stanza is being third individual and progressively unmistakable and dynamic, with the second utilizing the first individual plural ‘we’ to make an aggregate encounter and afterward at long last ‘I’ in the last line to single out the speaker.
Double Hyphen
In many of his poems, he uses a double hyphen. For example in ‘Parades Parade’ it is utilized to make a delay. It is a breathing space in the line before the poem conveys its message about incapable political frameworks. In addition, it brings out the picture of ‘fly path’ genuinely on the page.
Assonance and Consonance
There is no rhyme scheme in most of his poems. However, there is a ton of consonance and assonance that associates various pictures together. For example, in ’Parade Parade’ walks, processions and mountains are in the principal verse, just like lines and trails in that stanza show these qualities.
The line ‘those constrained, raspy hosannas’ has assonance over the three final words, making a scratching sound. It brings out the picture of individuals being asked to sing hosannas as noisily and frequently as could be expected. It is under the circumstances until it turns out to be genuinely excruciating — hosanna is a recognition tune, regularly strict.
Themes in Derek Walcott’s Writings
Some Governmental issues
In many of his poems, Walcott sees that new, free political frameworks are not all that unique in relation to the manner by which his nation was administered under provincial standards. His poem communicates a lack of concern towards administrative frameworks. They scrutinize the irony of the nation that is praising a freedom march. while this march is controlled under the justice legislative framework.
Colonialism
The greater part of Walcott’s verse investigates the impacts of the British Empire upon the individuals of the West Indies. Their traditions and legislative structures appear to last considerably after the individuals have picked up supposed Independence.
Government
The absence of advancement or progress in government is censured, as a writer, Walcott is baffled by the Caribbean government. He likewise ponders whether the British type of government was better utilized in its nation of the starting point when Victoria administered, or whether all administrations are similarly incapable.
Pride and Patriotism
His poems are critical of promulgation proposed by governments, where it drums the energy and pride of nations into its residents. They are simultaneously never helping to cause them to feel deservedly glad for their nation.
Progress and Change
Walcott uncovered the incongruity in overruling a political framework, just for the manner by which the nation is managed to remain the equivalent. He shows that change is less about re-naming and re-bundling something, and progressively about genuine advancement.