BOTM September Another Life: Fully Annotated

[Celia]

In his longest and most ambitious poem, Derek Walcott reaches beyond an evocative portrayal of his native West Indies to create a moving elegy on himself and on man.

The fascinating and complex matrix of the author's life is illuminated with our candor, verve, and strength. Over four thousand lines of verse are grouped into four parts. He evokes scenes of his divided childhood, in which children live in shacks while fine khaki-clothed Englishmen drink tea. He depicts the influence of three intimate friends, including his first love, Anna, on his emergence as a man and artist. He chronicles the mixed remorse and resolution of maturity. He recalls of his youth: "We were blessed with a virginal, unpainted world / with Adam's task of giving things their names..." Yet in retrospect he acknowledges the irony of his artistic reliance on metaphor to transform reality--his search for "another life"

When the author's most recent collection of poetry, The Gulf, was published, Selden Rodman wrote in The New York Times Book Review: "Now, with the publication of his fourth book of verse, Walcott's stature in the front rank of all contemporary poets using English should be apparent." Chad Walsh in Book World said: "I am convinced one of the half-dozen most imporant poets now writing in English. He may prove to be the best."

Another Life helps to fulfill this prophecy.
Source: https://books.google.com/books/about/...

[Amanda]

Don't know who else is planning to read this one, but I finished yesterday, thought it was great with really effective lyrical language. I'll post a more in depth review with quotes within the week.

[Gail]

I was afraid that I did not have the literary background to appreciate this autobiographical poem. However, the clarity and pristine nature of the word constructions were a joy even if I was missing many of the references to Milton, Homer, James Joyce, etc. The poem brings to life the split nature of growing up in St. Lucia with a white grandfather and a black grandfather; the split between the nature of a British historical education and the street education of the islands that would not recognize a red-coat as a heroic figure. The split between being a Methodist on a Catholic island. The split between the love of poetry and painting.
Walcott takes us through his first love that parallels Dante’s love of Beatrice, his first triumphs in the arts, the extremely different passions of his best friend and his mentor. The language reflects the author’s chronological age and his educational background until it slowly brings us to a unique voice of the author as a mature artist that does not bow down to colonial verse or even James Joyce. The visual imagery is largely that of our characters and of rain, sunlight and the sea. The sea is beautiful, comforting, alive and yet can never remove itself from being that which separated his slave forefathers, via a middle passage, from a completely different home. Walcott takes us to a place where the ultimate triumph is the ability to begin anew, a new world, a new blank page, a new way of writing poetry, a new naming….and a huge and respectful appreciate of those people who helped him to become who he has become.
Thank you Amanda and Celia, I would never have read this without your prompting.

[Amanda]

Gail wrote: "I was afraid that I did not have the literary background to appreciate this autobiographical poem. However, the clarity and pristine nature of the word constructions were a joy even if I was missin..."

I'm glad you read and enjoyed Gail! I've been slow on the uptake here about posting my own review lol...honestly Gail's is so beautiful and articulate I'm not sure I have a lot to add.

Generally, I loved the evocative quality of the lyricism, the way the natural beauty of the Island and the sensations of it pop right off the page.

The way he uses some of the conventions of Western literature to undermine the colonial assumptions of St. Lucia's history was also masterfully done.

Here are just some of the passages that I really loved (although honestly there's something sumptuous on every page):


"as a sun, tired of empire, declined.
It mesmerised like fire without wind,
and as its amber climbed
the beer-stein ovals of the British fort
above the promontory, the sky
grew drunk with light.
There
was your heaven! The clear
glaze of another life,"



"mangroves knee-deep in water
crouched like whelk-pickers on brown, spindly legs
scattering red soldier crabs
scrabbling for redcoats’ meat."


"she was a servant, her sign
a dry park of disconsolate palms, like brooms,
planted by the Seventh Edward, Prince of Wales,
with drooping ostrich crests, ICH DIEN, I SERVE"

Completely understand why he ow the Nobel (not always the case I find lol), and will likely read more of his poetry in the future.

[Celia]

Thank you, Stalwart Members, for such beautiful comments about this book. If I had more time, and less challenges (!), I would read them all.