West Indian poetry has evolved to mirror the countless experiences that we as a people have endured, each poet adds to the complexity of our heritage and whether they choose to side with European or African ancestry, we can all agree that they remain distinctively West Indian. Derek Walcott and Edward Brathwaite are two of the most internationally acclaimed poets producing work that not only encapsulates our growth as Caribbean people but our continued struggle to define ourselves as a people. Edward Kamau Brathwaite, who leans towards our African ancestry has combined its griot style with the stories from the Caribbean to create folk poems that signify its relevance in his epic The Arrivants. Walcott while, widely known to favor the European
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Walcott and Brathwaite both utilize the colorful imagery of the Caribbean experience to shape poetry that not only reflects the Caribbean but depicts our shared history. Walcott and Brathwaite would agree that [poetry] is a "literature" that must be read by all Caribbean writers seeking to understand what it means to be Caribbean-or West Indian. In Walcott’s collection of Selected Poems ‘Ruins of a great house’ he describes the effect of nature on the estate house parallel to the effects of slavery. Walcott utilizes vivid adjectives and pronounced verbs to portray images of the ‘rot’ and decay present in the ruins ‘of a great house’. The language he uses compels the reader to feel not only ‘compassion’ for the slaves but owners who were both marked by the effects of slavery. The limes continually referred to in the poem symbolizes the resilience of the slaves to endure and find a ‘slit’ to grow and create new fruit. Moreover, he goes on to say that the smell of the rotting decay of these limes have been a ‘ leprosy ‘ to the country, reflective of slavery lasting influences on our society today. Walcott’s artful uses of …show more content…
Both writers are involved in the search for a West Indian heritage-a heritage that will give the Black Caribbean a cultural identity(Criswell, 1998). At the heart of both Selected Poems and The Arrivants is a quest for this identity. Walcott and Brathwaite both recognize the importance of the African ancestry in the Black West Indian. Walcott’s “Far cry from Africa” ideally portrays our struggle to find identity. Where the poet ‘waste no compassion for the dead’ but instead focuses on the present ‘salient of colonial policy’. He idolizes both of his races and comes to the consensus that he cannot ‘turn form Africa and live.’ He voices the feelings of the people in the West-Indies, by highlighting our conflicting views of being ‘poisoned with the blood of both races’. Our continued ambivalence to chooses between our ‘[African] and English tongue / that leaves us divided to the vein’. These ambivalences leave us pained in the ‘face of such slaughter’. The identity of the West Indian does not lie in an idealized past; nor does it lie with the former oppressor, though the West Indian must understand the role slavery and colonization have played in shaping this identity. Moreover, In Brathwaite’s The Arrivants poem
Walcott and Brathwaite both utilize the colorful imagery of the Caribbean experience to shape poetry that not only reflects the Caribbean but depicts our shared history. Walcott and Brathwaite would agree that [poetry] is a "literature" that must be read by all Caribbean writers seeking to understand what it means to be Caribbean-or West Indian. In Walcott’s collection of Selected Poems ‘Ruins of a great house’ he describes the effect of nature on the estate house parallel to the effects of slavery. Walcott utilizes vivid adjectives and pronounced verbs to portray images of the ‘rot’ and decay present in the ruins ‘of a great house’. The language he uses compels the reader to feel not only ‘compassion’ for the slaves but owners who were both marked by the effects of slavery. The limes continually referred to in the poem symbolizes the resilience of the slaves to endure and find a ‘slit’ to grow and create new fruit. Moreover, he goes on to say that the smell of the rotting decay of these limes have been a ‘ leprosy ‘ to the country, reflective of slavery lasting influences on our society today. Walcott’s artful uses of …show more content…
Both writers are involved in the search for a West Indian heritage-a heritage that will give the Black Caribbean a cultural identity(Criswell, 1998). At the heart of both Selected Poems and The Arrivants is a quest for this identity. Walcott and Brathwaite both recognize the importance of the African ancestry in the Black West Indian. Walcott’s “Far cry from Africa” ideally portrays our struggle to find identity. Where the poet ‘waste no compassion for the dead’ but instead focuses on the present ‘salient of colonial policy’. He idolizes both of his races and comes to the consensus that he cannot ‘turn form Africa and live.’ He voices the feelings of the people in the West-Indies, by highlighting our conflicting views of being ‘poisoned with the blood of both races’. Our continued ambivalence to chooses between our ‘[African] and English tongue / that leaves us divided to the vein’. These ambivalences leave us pained in the ‘face of such slaughter’. The identity of the West Indian does not lie in an idealized past; nor does it lie with the former oppressor, though the West Indian must understand the role slavery and colonization have played in shaping this identity. Moreover, In Brathwaite’s The Arrivants poem