St Lucian poet Derek Walcott, who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, died yesterday at the age of 87.
A Reuters report quoted Jeff Seroy, a spokesman for publisher Farrar, Strauss and Giroux, as saying that Walcott died shortly after 5 am yesterday. His cause of death was not immediately known, but Seroy reportedly said Walcott had been ill for some time and had recently returned home from a hospital stay.
His longtime companion, Sigrid Nama, was with him at the time of his death, Seroy said.
In order to describe how the death of Walcott has impacted on the Caribbean literary community, Uni-versity of Guyana (UG) Lecturer Al Creighton quoted English poet John Donne: “Every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main; any man’s death diminishes.”
Walcott’s death, Creighton noted, was not just the passing of one man but the death of an era. “…Walcott had become a fixture of Caribbean literature and his passing marks the end of an era I never thought to see end,” Creighton told Stabroek News in an interview.
He stressed that the St Lucian was part of a generation of writers who developed a Caribbean literary identity.
“Having been educated in the British tradition, he noted the absence of Caribbean mythology in the literature being taught and spent his early career creating such literature. He then spent his later career defending and protecting that Caribbean voice in literature. There are many other Caribbean poets but Walcott became a staple. The positions he took in his poetry, his plays and his critical writing were protective of the Caribbean experience,” Creighton explained.
Ian McDonald, a fellow poet, described Walcott as “one of the greatest poets not only in the region but in the world. I remember as a schoolboy some 70 years ago being really impacted by his first collection. It is hard to quantify what it felt like as a school boy in Trinidad reading great poetry written by a West Indian. Here was one of my own. In fact, not only was he an inspiration but I was inspired by the fact that he was writing about the West Indies and the West Indian. Before Walcott all influences were from Great Britain and to a lesser extent from the US.”
He noted that while the region has birthed several great writers, such as Kamau Braithwaite, V S Naipaul and many others, no one can doubt that Walcott was one of its greatest poets and playwrights and who from the age of 19 had a profound influence worldwide.
Asked to identify his favourite piece from Walcott, McDonald said it was impossible to do so.
“One of the amazing things about Walcott is I honestly cannot think of a favourite piece. All of his pieces are great in their own way. He may be best known for Another Life and Omeros but he really has never produced a collection that was less than very, very good,” he stressed. From his first work, 25 Poems to In a Green Night, published in 1962 and on to White Egrets one of his last published works, Walcott produced nothing but quality, McDonald added.
While Creighton also noted that selecting a favourite piece is difficult, he identified the Joker of Seville as one to which he feels a particular connection.
“It takes the story of Don Juan and infuses it with the rhyme, rhythm, meter and traditions of the Caribbean. This is what he was known for. His work The Sea is History embraces Caribbean stories, he talks of Caribbean language and truths. We see in Schooner Flight a persona Shabine who was almost like Walcott himself. This literary identity he helped to create, he also protected, defended and took to the world. It is this type of literature for which he was known worldwide, his Caribbean literature, it is this same type of writing which won him the Nobel Prize,” Creighton said.
Both McDonald and Creighton referred to Walcott’s infusion of ordinary Caribbean experiences in his writing as the greatest characteristic of his work and urged young writers to emulate him in this way.
“Every great writer inspires but I would like to caution this new generation of writers not to try and copy Walcott. You can’t. He is unique. Read Walcott. Allow yourself to be influenced by his rhythm and feel his word and then develop your own rhythm and feel for words. He writes about everything; writes well about ordinary, humble people and things. Young writers must learn from this,” McDonald said.
Creighton had similar advice, while urging a new generation of playwrights and poets to learn from how he used Caribbean material and mythology.
“Look at his poetry and the way he used rhythm and rhyme and meter but doesn’t get bogged down. In his work we have rhymes coming occasionally and when they come it helps the rhythm. Walcott [did not] subscribe to any particularly rhyme scheme which younger poets can learn from since they often overdo in their eagerness to rhyme,” he said.
While Creighton struggle to deal with his surprise at Walcott’s death, McDonald was looking for one more collection of poetry from this prolific writer. “My hope is that we can see a final volume of his poetry. Right to the end he was writing beautifully. I hope there is material for one final collection,” McDonald said.
Walcott, who was born on the volcanic island of St Lucia in 1930, came to the attention of the public in 1962 with a collection of poems called, In a Green Night, which celebrated the Caribbean.
In Omeros (1990), an epic poem considered his most ambitious and accomplished work, he invoked Caribbean voices through Greek myth, drawing on Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey.
Two years later, he was awarded the Nobel Prize, and in its citation, the Swedish Academy said: “He has both African and European blood in his veins. In him, West Indian culture has found its great poet.”
Britain’s former poet laureate Andrew Motion described Walcott as a member of the great Nobel-winning poetic generation.
“He did as much or more than anyone to win the global respect for Caribbean writing that it deserves and now enjoys,” Motion said in an emailed statement to Reuters.
Walcott’s children, Elizabeth Walcott-Hackshaw and Anna Walcott-Hardy, said his funeral would be held on the island while the St Lucia’s Prime Minister Allen Chastanet said the country’s flag would be flown at half-mast in Walcott’s honour until Tuesday.
The PM referred to the poet, painter and playwright as “a Caribbean patriot.”
