Collected Poems, 1948-1984
This remarkable collection, which won the 1986 Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Poetry, includes most of the poems from each of Derek Walcott's seven prior books of verse and all of his long autobiographical poem, "Another Life." The 1992 Nobel Laureate in Literature, Walcott has been producing—for several decades—a poetry with all the beauty, wisdom, directness, and narrative force of our classic myths and fairy tales, and in this hefty volume readers will find a full record of his important...
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This remarkable collection, which won the 1986 Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Poetry, includes most of the poems from each of Derek Walcott's seven prior books of verse and all of his long autobiographical poem, "Another Life." The 1992 Nobel Laureate in Literature, Walcott has been producing—for several decades—a poetry with all the beauty, wisdom, directness, and narrative force of our classic myths and fairy tales, and in this hefty volume readers will find a full record of his important endeavor. "Walcott's virutes as a poet are extraordinary," James Dickey wrote in The New York Times Book Review. "He could turn his attention on anything at all and make it live with a reality beyond its own; through his fearless language it becomes not only its acquired life, but the real one, the one that lasts . . . Walcott is spontaneous, headlong, and inventive beyond the limits of most other poets now writing."Library JournalWalcott has written nine books of poetry, beginning with 25 Poems (printed in St. Lucia in 1948) and ending with Midsummer ( LJ 1/84). In Collected Poems , Walcott offers us generous selections from all his books, especially Sea Grapes ( LJ 8/76), and he adds the entire text of Another Life (1974), his autobiography in verse and a tribute to the formative influences of the island of St. Lucia. Walcott is a superb stylist who leaves his signature in complex chains of imagery: ``The rain falls like knives/ on the kitchen floor./ The sky's heavy drawer was pulled out too suddenly.'' Collected Poems will certainly rank as one of the important poetry titles of 1986, and no poetry collection will be complete without it. Strongly recommended. Daniel L. Guillory, English Dept., Millikin Univ., Decatur, Ill.
from In a Green Night Poems 1948-1960 [1962]Prelude3As John to Patmos5A City's Death by Fire6The Harbour7from Selected Poems [1964]Origins11from In a Green Night (1962)A Far Cry from Africa17Ruins of a Great House19Tales of the Islands22Return to D'Ennery; Rain28Pocomania31Parang33Two Poems on the Passing of an Empire35Orient and Immortal Wheat36A Lesson for This Sunday38Bleecker Street, Summer40A Letter from Brooklyn41Brise Marine43A Sea-Chantey44The Polish Rider47The Banyan Tree, Old Year's Night48In a Green Night50Islands52from The Castaway and Other Poems [1965]The Castaway57The Swamp59Tarpon61Missing the Sea63The Glory Trumpeter64A Map of Europe66Nights in the Gardens of Port of Spain67Crusoe's Island68Coral73from The Gulf [1970]from The Castaway and Other Poems (1965)The Flock77A Village Life79Goats and Monkeys83Laventille85Verandah89God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen91Crusoe's Journal92Lampfall95Codicil97from The Gulf and Other Poems (1969)Mass Man99Exile100Homage to Edward Thomas103The Gulf104Elegy109Blues111Air113Guyana115Che123Negatives124Landfall, Grenada125Homecoming: Anse La Raye127Star130Cold Spring Harbor131Love in the Valley133Nearing Forty136The Walk138Another Life [1973]1The Divided Child1432Homage to Gregorias1893A Simple Flame2234The Estranging Sea259from Sea Grapes [1976]Sea Grapes297Sunday Lemons298New World300Adam's Song302Preparing for Exile304Names305Sainte Lucie309Volcano324Endings326The Fist327Love after Love328Dark August329Sea Canes331Midsummer, Tobago333Oddjob, a Bull Terrier334Winding Up336The Morning Moon338To Return to the Trees339from the Star-Apple Kingdom [1979]The Schooner Flight345Sabbaths, W.I.362The Sea Is History364Egypt, Tobago368The Saddhu of Couva372Forest of Europe375Koenig of the River379The Star-Apple Kingdom383from the Fortunate Traveller [1981]Old New England399Upstate401Piano Practice403North and South405Beachhead410Map of the New World413From This Far414Europa418The Man Who Loved Islands420Hurucan423Jean Rhys427The Liberator430The Spoiler's Return432The Hotel Normandie Pool439Early Pompeian446Easter452Wales455The Fortunate Traveller456The Season of Phantasmal Peace464from Midsummer [1984]II - Companion in Rome, whom Rome makes as old as Rome469III - At the Queen's Park Hotel, with its white, high-ceilinged rooms471VI - Midsummer stretches beside me with its cat's yawn472VII - Our houses are one step from the gutter. Plastic curtains474XI - My double, tired of morning, closes the door475XIV - With the frenzy of an old snake shedding its skin476XV - I can sense it coming from far, too, Maman, the tide477XVIII - In the other'eighties, a hundred midsummers gone478XIX - Gauguin479XX - Watteau481XXI - A long, white, summer cloud, like a cleared linen table482XXIII - With the stampeding hiss and scurry of green lemmings483XXV - The sun has fired my face to terra-cotta484XXVI - Before that thundercloud breaks from its hawsers485XXVII - Certain things here are quietly American-486XXVIII - Something primal in our spine makes the child swing488XXX - Gold dung and urinous straw from the horse garages489XXXIII - Those grooves in that forehead of sand-coloured flesh490XXXV - Mud. Clods. The sucking heel of the rain-flinger491XXXVI - The oak inns creak in their joints as light declines492XXXIX - The grey English road hissed emptily under the tires493XLI - The camps hold their distance-brown chestnuts and grey smoke494XLII - Chicago's avenues, as white as Poland495XLIII - Tropic Zone496XLIX - A wind-scraped headland, a sludgy, dishwater sea503L - I once gave my daughters, separately, two conch shells504LI - Since all of your work was really an effort to appease505LII - I heard them marching the leaf-wet roads of my head506LIII - There was one Syrian, with his bicycle, in our town508LIV - The midsummer sea, the hot pitch road, this grass, these shacks that made me510Books of Poetry by Derek Walcott512Index of Titles513
\ From the Publisher"One of the most instructive experiences afforded by this collected edition is the spectacle of a poet moving with gradually deepening confidence to found his own poetic domain, independent of the tradition he inherited yet not altogether orphaned from it . . . This is a triumphant book."—Seamus Heaney, The Boston Globe\ "It is difficult to think of a poet in our century who—without ever betraying his native sources—has so organically assimilated the evolution of English literature from the Renaissance to the present, who has absorbed the Classical and Judeo-Christian past, and who has mined the history of Western painting as Walcott has. Throughout his entire body of work he has managed to hold in balance his passionate moral concerns with the ideal of art. By his fifty-fifth year Derek Walcott has made his culture, history, and sociology into a myth for our age and into an epic song that has already taken its place in the history of Western literature."—Peter Balakian, Poetry\ \ \ \ \ \ Library JournalWalcott has written nine books of poetry, beginning with 25 Poems (printed in St. Lucia in 1948) and ending with Midsummer ( LJ 1/84). In Collected Poems , Walcott offers us generous selections from all his books, especially Sea Grapes ( LJ 8/76), and he adds the entire text of Another Life (1974), his autobiography in verse and a tribute to the formative influences of the island of St. Lucia. Walcott is a superb stylist who leaves his signature in complex chains of imagery: ``The rain falls like knives/ on the kitchen floor./ The sky's heavy drawer was pulled out too suddenly.'' Collected Poems will certainly rank as one of the important poetry titles of 1986, and no poetry collection will be complete without it. Strongly recommended. Daniel L. Guillory, English Dept., Millikin Univ., Decatur, Ill.\ \
