I agree with you about Walcott's gift for landscape, Ali, but I think you
underestimate the human element of the poem. The main character is, of
course, Walcott himself. This is, I suppose, in the tradition of the
post-romantic poem - a tradition that is, admittedly, getting a bit tired.
Certainly there are times when I find the Walcott narrative self-indulgent,
and others where it just seems an excuse to string a travelogue together.
But given that the tradition is there I can forgive him for tapping into it,
partly because the travelogue is so good and enriches the poem with some
truly epic material, such as the Ghost Dance section I mentioned, and partly
because of the other strand of the poem, the St Lucia theme. This features
some memorable characters, some great dialogue in two languages (his use of
Creole and English translations within the same form is a tour de force), a
good deal of comedy (something else an epic should have?) and moments of
genuine drama. To my list last time, I add the recovery of Philoctete which
is a powerful resolution to the theme of physical suffering which that
character has been the focus of.
In my last post, I meant Midsummer, not Summer, of course.
Best wishes
Matthew
-----Original Message-----
From: ALI ALIZADEH <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]>
Date: 22 February 2001 04:24
Subject: Re: Walcott
>Hi Matthew
>
>I have to agree with Alison on Walcott. I also think Walcott's gift is
landscape; my
>favourite poem of his is 'For the Altarpiece of the Roseau Valley Church'.
At his
>best, as in this poem, he manages to encapsulate people in the details of
the
>setting and viceversa:
>
>between adorations, one might see,
>if one were there, and not there,
>looking in at the windows
>
>the real faces of angels.
>
>With the epic the subject is a human (as opposed to mythos), for better or
for
>worse. I've been batteling it out with the word 'epic' for a while, and the
best
>translation of it in our English is 'about someone'or 'upon (a human)'. I
think
>Walcott's use of something like Dante's form (cantos of three line stanzas)
is not
>suitable for a book that doesn't seem to have that much to do with
protagonists.
>Most epis are, whether we like it or not, prosaic narratives - although
that's not a
>rule. For Dante the three-line stanza progression works beautifully,
especially when
>he's caught in a conversation and each stanza denotes a different speaker.
For
>Walcott's valleys and rivers and trees and animals, I don't think the form
is
>suitable.
>
>Ali
>
>---- Original Message ----
>From: [log in to unmask]
>Date: Thu 2/22/01 12:59
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Re: Walcott
>
>Matthew -
>
>I have to echo David here. Since I don't have time to look at Omeros, my
>criticism is only going to be schematic: it bored and disappointed me,
>and it lacked the sense of drama that Homer has. I don't mind Walcott's
>longer line, or baroque extravagances; in fact, I really liked The Bounty
>(esp the title poem), and continue to be a great admirer of his earlier
>work; but Omeros was I think a mistake, and for me collapsed under its
>own ponderous weight.
>
>Best
>
>Alison
>
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