Another Life

by Derek Walcott

This study offers a meticulous critique of Nobel laureate Derek Walcott's poetry. "Another Life", Walcott's masterpiece of autobiography in verse, has of course been widely praised. D.J. McClatchy, for example, writing in "The New Republic", called it "one of the best long autobiographical poems in English, with the narrative sweep, the lavish layering of details, and the mythic resonance of a certain classic". It is also, though, an ideal point of entry into Walcott's work. The 200 pages of detailed notes and commentary offered in this annotated edition draw to a great extent on unpublished sources to provide a useful resource for both teachers and students. Equally important, the book should enhance the accessibility of Walcott's history and poetry for all readers.

Genres: Poetry

160 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1973

About the author

Derek Walcott was a Caribbean poet, playwright, writer and visual artist. Born in Castries, St. Lucia, he won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1992 "for a poetic oeuvre of great luminosity, sustained by a historical vision, the outcome of a multicultural commitment."

His work, which developed independently of the schools of magic realism emerging in both South America and Europe at around the time of his birth, is intensely related to the symbolism of myth and its relationship to culture. He was best known for his epic poem Omeros, a reworking of Homeric story and tradition into a journey around the Caribbean and beyond to the American West and London.

Walcott founded the Trinidad Theatre Workshop in 1959, which has produced his plays (and others) since that time, and remained active with its Board of Directors until his death. He also founded Boston Playwrights' Theatre at Boston University in 1981. In 2004, Walcott was awarded the Anisfield-Wolf Lifetime Achievement Award, and had retired from teaching poetry and drama in the Creative Writing Department at Boston University by 2007. He continued to give readings and lectures throughout the world after retiring. He divided his time between his home in the Caribbean and New York City.

Reviews

[Margaret Carpenter · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this over months at an infuriatingly slow pace; I did not want it to end! Usually it takes a second or third read-through for me to really grasp a poem, but the connection with Walcott has always been immediate for me. And this is Walcott in his perfected form.

[Rosa Tolava · Rating 4 out of 5]

El libro Another life de Derek Walcott está dividido en cuatro partes. La segunda parte está precedida por una frase de Alejo Carpentier, el escritor cubano. La tercera parte está encabezada por una frase de César Vallejo, el escritor peruano.  En la primera parte el yo poético describe un lugar de ensueño oprimido por el colonialismo, la servidumbre. El  peso del poder y el contraste constante entre los  adjetivos blanco y negro exponen la dicotomía que padecen los habitantes del lugar. El  silencio es muy importante porque el yo poético recuerda las tareas realizadas por su madre y familiares en completo silencio.

En un paralelismo ingenioso, el yo poético describe algunos personajes de su propia ciudad, de su propia ‘Troya': por cada letra del abecedario enumera un personaje de su ciudad. No obstante, su mitología no es excelsa sino que revela lo infrahumano: prostitutas, víctimas de violación, ladrones, etc. Es una mitología del inframundo, es "la Jerusalén de la gente de color". El cura, el mercader son figuras muy presentes en este poema.  La voz poética se pregunta "What else was he but a divided child?". Dos tradiciones se contraponen, la de los nativos y la de los colonos.

En la segunda parte la voz poética encuentra una compañera artística, Gregoria. Ambos dibujan, ella es más espontáneo que él. En las bibliotecas de las casas que su madre limpia observan pinturas y  repasan todo tipo de obras de arte del mundo occidental. En la tercera parte se enamora de Anna, que personifica a todas las Annas de la literatura occidental. En la cuarta parte el yo poético parece aún más  reflexivo. Como en un círculo retoma los versos del principio para dar un cierre a este libro.

Es el primer libro que leo de Derek Walcott, me gustó. La presencia de todo el arte occidental a lo largo de sus poemas es una muestra de la aniquilación del arte nativo de su país. Su mirada acusador a denuncia esa falta, ese crimen.


 

[Palmattron · Rating 5 out of 5]

Intentando buscar una manera no pretenciosa de decir que he entendido un quince por ciento y aún así intuyo su grandeza.

[Nelson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read the unannotated edition; would love to get a look at the version with notes some time. The closest analogue to this poetic project of Walcott's is obviously Wordsworth's Prelude, an autobiographical poem. Like Wordsworth's (much lengthier) poem, Walcott's text explores the world of his youth and meditates on how changed both it and he are by time. Those who have read Omeros will find much that is familiar here. It seems clear that the longer, later epic is partly made possible by this work. But where that poem engages in a more robust way with history and the epic tradition itself, this shorter piece only begins to map out Walcott's approach to these topics. For that reason alone it is worth a look. There are many passages of stark beauty, along with the occasional bitter reflections on how time has not been kind, either to St. Lucia or the narrator. Worth a look even if it is all one reads of Walcott, but for those who take on Omeros, this is essential.

O simultaneous stroke of chord and light,
O tightened nerves to which the soul vibrates,
some flash of lime-green water, edged with white—
"I have swallowed all my hates."

[Amber Manning · Rating 5 out of 5]

"I shall make coffee.
The light, like a fiercer dawn,
will singe the downy edges of my hair,
and the heat will plate my forehead till it shines.
Its sweat will share the excitement of my cunning.
Mother, I am in love.
Harbour, I am waking.
I know the pain in your budding, nippled limes,
I know why your limbs shake, windless, pliant trees."

[andré crombie · Rating 4 out of 5]

"I watched the vowels curl from the tongue of the carpenter's plane,
resinous, fragrant
labials of our forests,
over the plain wood
the back crouched,
the vine-muscled wrist,
like a man rowing,
sweat-fleck on blond cedar."

[Natalia Hernández Moreno · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Each mile tightening us and all fidelity strained till space would snap it. Then, after a while I thought of nothing: nothing, I prayed, would changed (…) No metaphor, no metamorphosis, as the charcoal-burner turns into his door of smoke, three lives dissolve in the imagination.” 


[Matt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Didn’t read the annotated version, but this is my favorite “artist novel”. Beautiful poetry.

[Hollis Williams · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'll just point out that I read an edition of this book without any notes or commentary of any kind (although I probably would have benefitted from some): I'm just adding this edition because it is the only one Goodreads has.

The poetry was gorgeous as always.