Poems From Different Cultures and Traditions - Essay Example

Renowned, West Indian Derek Roach and Derek Walcott command the attention of readers through their poetic voices. Though both commit to using the same techniques to write about similar subject matters, each author's distinctive poetic voice sets him apart from the other. Eric Roach and Derek Walcott use nature to convey feelings of Caribbean people. In some poems, each poet depicts nature as a deceptive force that is equivalent to personal or historical obstacles. However, Roach utilizes the deceptive nature in a more malevolent context; whereas, Walcott employs the deceptive natural elements as personal assistants that help him come to terms with circumstances and make more judicious decisions. For both poets, nature plays a deceptive role in the landscape. In Roach's "Love Overgrows a Rock," the water's complement to the horizon creates tranquil scenery. The poet's vivid description of the landscape in the first three lines "Only the foreground's green/waves break in the middle distance/and to horizon the Atlantic spread," shows that he is captivated by the landscape (127). Though waves peacefully crash in the distance, shore water engulfs dreams. One area of the water performs one function, while another part of the water performs a different task that is completely unrelated to its counterpart's. Thus, the dual function of the water contributes to deception in the poem. The theme of deception continues in Roach's "The Curse of her Beauty" (145). In the midst of disarrayed and wind-battened trees, a beautiful woman appears. The woman's beauty seduces and blinds the poet from the realism of the less-desired landscape. The poet's intense attraction to the woman leads him to become better acquainted with her. Through greater acquaintance, the poet realizes that the woman does in fact resemble the land. However, that deferred realization results in a subsequent and dramatic heartbreak for the poet. Like Roach, Walcott includes nature's deceptive role in the landscape of his poems. In "The Harbour" (7), Walcott describes the sea as one that is "bitter and sly" (8) and "crueler than any word of love" (10). A first impression of the harbour is different. The harbour provides a channel for fishermen and travelers. In fact, the harbour's calmness makes it a safe and ideal passage of nightly entrances and exits. Night and its accompanying elements seem to aid the harbour's deceptive ploy. Walcott renames night as "an urger of old lies" (5)-one that covers truth. Moreover, the stars signal their part in the plot by winking at the night. With no need to question the conveniences of the harbour, fishermen continue rowing towards home. Unsuspectingly and calmly, the traveler takes advantage of the harbour's connection to further exploration. Though he hears small whispers of casualties, the deceptive surroundings continue to provide the traveler with a false sense of security that provides him with enough courage to continue his journey. Nature's deception represents struggles imposed upon Roach and Walcott. Both West Indian poets strained to come to terms with the crippling effects that post-colonialism had on their Caribbean countries. Being under the yoke of the English, French, and Spanish took a great toll on the Caribbean people (Breiner 113). In first eight lines of his poem "A Far Cry from Africa," Walcott uses nature to establish the brutal and deadly rule of the colonial authority, as it is opposed on the Mau Mau of Kenya (Trueblood 3): A wind is ruffling the tawny pelt Of Africa. Kikuyu, quick as flies, Batten upon the bloodstreams of the veldt. Corpses are scattered through a paradise. Only the worm, colonel of carrion, cries: 'Waste no compassion on these separate dead!' Statistics justify and scholars seize The salients of colonial policy. (7) The first couple of lines refer to Africa as a dead animal lying in the wind. The next couple of lines show Africa's inner death-its people being bloodily fastened to the open grassy fields (veldts) by insensitive killers who see them as more insignificant numbers to be added to the death toll. According to Wikipedia, "The Kikuyu (a Kenyan tribe) was the most active ethnic group during the fight for Kenyan Independence" and suffered greatly under the British Imperial Rule. Walcott uses natural images to illustrate the continent's suffering as well as an inhabiting tribe's sufferance. Similar to the devastating rule in Africa, colonialism took a comparable effect on the people of the Caribbean. Nothing was sweeter than the entire island's liberation, which is conveyed in Roach's poem "Freedom," as a dawning day (39). Lines two through four show the natural elements signaling the new beginning: "the vast dun clouds/are tipped with silver!/one shaft of light climbs up the sky!" Once the new day progresses, more elements of the natural landscape takes notice and celebrate: Lo! the day dawns. 'Twas such a dawning when a century gone The slave-men were set free, When fields were cradles rocked with song And woods were hung with a wild harmony, And the winds hummed joy's deep intensity. Now we, the heirs of that first freedom, Watch in this new dawn A fuller freedom born. (9-17) Once the natural elements realized the new beginning, they created jubilant festivities to celebrate the island's freedom. Songs resonated throughout the fields, while a harmonious wildness filled the woods. Even the winds expressed joy in the liberating event with a deep, intense hum. The news of the islands' freedom reached every space and evoked a celebration among the elements of nature. The "fuller freedom" refers to free excitement on every level. Not only are the people of the Caribbean free, but all of the inhabitants of the island are free as well. Though physically liberated from the brutal and oppressive rule, the Caribbean people continued to suffer from remnants of prior governance. For years, aspiring poets felt pressured to study and adhere to poetic styles of the authority (Jennings 23-25). Rather than exploring or creating their own poetic voice, West Indian poets conformed to European writing styles. Once permitted to incorporate an authentic voice, poets often did so apologetically or pondered whether or not their poetry should be true art or a work of protest. Between the two poets, Roach adopts a greater voice of protest through nature. In "Love Overgrows a Rock" and "The Curse of her Beauty," nature's deception seems more malicious. The green foreground and peacefully crashing waves are expected. On the other hand, water that engulfs the dreams of the observer steals aspirations in a painfully deceptive manner. Roach illustrates more unexpected deception in "The Curse of her Beauty." When the potency of her beauty intoxicated the poet, her seductive beauty not only blinded him, but it also gave him a false sense of hope. Seemingly, the poet had no other choice but to succumb to her beauty, unlike the traveler in Walcott's "Harbour." The traveler observes subtle hints such as the winking of the stars and whispers about the deaths of past travelers. In spite of the telltale signs, the traveler makes a conscious decision to continue his journey into the unknown. The traveler recognizes hints of deception but makes no effort to comment on them. On the other hand, Roach identifies and clearly makes the deception known. In fact, he refers to the woman who he once deemed a "goddess" as a "whore." (17-18) Normally, Roach uses the land as a metaphor for the struggle between Eurocentric dominance and Caribbean independence (Jennings 25). "The Curse of her Beauty" illustrates contrasts between the land the people's perceptions. Though lashed by the violent sea spray, the tough trees endure. A metaphor for the Caribbean people, the trees are referred to as being resilient. Equivalent to the dominance and violent nature of the authority, the lashing sea spray adds violence to the scene. However, from the initial landscape of emerges a beautiful woman. The woman symbolizes and illustrates the beauty of a land that has endured harsh treatment. Her beauty represents hope and entices the poet (which in this case represents the eyes of the Caribbean people) to look past the land's harsh history and enjoy the essence of its (the land's) nature. As illustrated by the poet's discovery, one who lacks thorough knowledge of the land's history is inhibited from making an educated and perhaps wise decision. The physical beauty of the land alone deceives all who rely solely upon it, as the poet makes known through his blatant vilification and protest of her deception. According to Mike Ferguson, "Protest poems raise and to a degree complain about issues related to their cultural origins" Roach protests against the woman's (a metaphor for the land) history by exposing her as a deceptive seductress. While Roach protests through his poetry, Walcott uses nature in his poetry to come to terms with circumstances. Each element of nature has its predetermined function. In "The Harbour," the night performs it routine task of concealing. Appearing to be an aiding element for the traveler, the stars wink at the night to acknowledge their role of providing scarce light for the traveler's pathway. The night strategically silences everything except rumors of paddlers who previously drowned during their trip. As a result, quiet and calmness lingers with the traveler's doubt. Though he takes notices and gives consideration of the subtle hints, the traveler decides to pursue his explorative goals. The cohesive efforts of the harbour's natural elements fail to change the traveler's initial decision. Rather, they exposed him to encouraging and discouraging aspects, by which the traveler could make a better-informed decision. The harbour's natural landscape allowed the traveler an opportunity to judiciously decide his course of action. One critic notes Walcott's use of nature in poetry: "When Walcott looks at Nature, it doesn't come apart into components; it enlarges, and includes him" (Trueblood 7). In other words, themes and landscapes in Walcott's poems extend beyond the paper to include their creator. Like the traveler in "The Harbour," Walcott encountered circumstances that could have become obstacles. Mark McWatt comments on challenges of Walcott's personal history: As a mulatto he was aware from very early of his double heritage, of black and white ancestors; this split was reinforced by other factors such as his Methodist, middle-class upbringing on an island that was largely Catholic and poor, an in particular by the colonial education which emphasized the formal language at the expense of dialect, and which taught the tradition of English literature from the classics to the moderns. (2) As a biracial individual living in a land of people with identity issues, Walcott not only faced a "struggle between two cultural heritages," but he also encountered extreme criticism as a writer (Bixby 3,5). "As a West Indian," Katie Jones suggest, "the poet can be seen as a castaway from both his ancestral cultures, African and European, stemming from both, belonging to neither (quoted in Bixby 3). Walcott faced his confusion by studying conflict between the European and West Indian culture; however, he found himself perplexed. The last eight lines of his poem "A Far Cry from Africa" convey Walcott's confusion between his African and English tongue: I who am poisoned with the blood of both, Where shall I turn, divided to the vein I who have cursed The drunken officer of British rule, how choose Between this Africa and the English tongue I love Betray them both, or give back what they give How can I face such slaughter and be cool How can I turn from Africa and live (18) Though a difficult and confusing choice, Walcott refused to abandon one style in order to replace it with the other. Rather, he incorporated both into his writing and openly referred to himself as "a mulatto of style" (Liukkonen 2). As a result, Walcott received mixed reviews about his works. Walcott reflects on comments from critics: I am primarily absolutely a Caribbean writer. The English language is nobody's special property. It is the property of the imagination: it is the property to the language itself. I have never felt inhibited in trying to write as well as the greatest English poets. Now that has led to a lot of provincial criticism: the Caribbean critic may say, 'You're trying to be English,' and the English critic may say, 'Welcome to the club.' These two provincial statements at either end of the spectrum. (Bixby 5) Walcott's desire and skill to meet previously set standards posed no problem for him. However, critics' broad range of misgivings and acceptance could have destroyed his confidence as a writer and career goals. Like the traveler in "The Harbour," however, Walcott chose not to allow subtle hints, criticism, or pre-existing circumstances to dictate his direction. Rather, Walcott opted to pursue and explore in his writing career while incorporating a style that included contrasting dialects. In writing "The Harbour," Walcott does little to blame circumstances. Rather, he conveys the idea that circumstances will be whatever they will except a direct influence on an individual without the individual's totally consent. The night, stars, calmness, and whispers represent residual doubt that resulted from Walcott's background of complexity. Another one of Walcott's poems illustrates how deception or neglect of natural elements does little to negatively influence the poet's thoughts. In the beginning of "Dark August" (329-330), the poet admits to dependency on the sun to brighten his day. The sun is known as the heavenly body that provides universal light and energy and seemingly has unprecedented power to drive away the worst storms. The sun in the poem, however, delays in her arrival. Rather, she continues a leisurely retreat in her room, while the poet is left to endure the angry and depressing storm. Despite the poet's plea of helpless plea, "Don't you know I love you but am hopeless/at fixing the rain" (11-12), the sun refuses to come out. The turning point of the poem reveals the poet coming to terms with and learning from the sun's decision not to appear: "I would have learnt to love black days like bright ones,/the black rain,/the white hills, when once/I loved only my happiness and you." (22-24) Eventually, the poet learns to love and embrace the storm in its entire splendor along with its accompanying elements such as "the dark days, the steaming hills,/the air with gossiping mosquitoes. (13-14) Not only does the rain's persistence contribute to the poet's growth, but the sun's refusal to appear also enhances the rain's efforts. Once again, Walcott shows how elements of a natural landscape collaborate to reap a single result-helping an individual to accept the circumstances of a particular situation. While the elements of Walcott's poems work cohesively, the natural elements in Roach's "The Curse of her Beauty," seem to have disjointed efforts. Signaling the co-existence of the two, both repulsive landscape and the beautiful woman are mentioned in the first stanza of the poem: Wind-harried, tough And twisted trees, Burnt black by bitter Sea spray flying From the barrier rock; That clay-brown woman Slim as saplings, Old as ocean, Young as mornings. (1-9) For the most part, however, the woman's beauty works independent of other mentioned elements of the landscape. She relies solely on her physical appearance to trap the unwary poet. However, one may question Roach's presentation of the abused trees along with the beautiful woman in the first stanza. Further, one could theorize Roach's intention for one natural element to work in the favor of the other. If Roach intended for these opposites to work towards the same outcome, he puts one element (the woman) at an advantage. If anything, the woman uses the unattractive surroundings as an enhancement to her beauty. In this case, the woman acts not only as a "whore" but also as a schemer who uses the presence of other elements (trees and sea spray) of the landscape for her personal gain. Nicholas Laughlin contends that, "Caribbean is not a simple word; it means so much about history and landscape, freedom and despair, language and silence, home and exile, power and love." Through the use of natural landscape, Roach and Walcott's works speaks volumes about the Caribbean, its people, and each poet's immense love for the land. Despite the love for the land, Roach abandoned the land and sought refuge in the water when he completed suicide in 1974. Jennings notes the details of Roach's death: His suicide was accomplished by drinking insecticide and then swimming out to sea at Quinam's Bay in Trinidad where he presumed Christopher Columbus has landed. By deliberately staging his death at Columbus' supposed landing point, Roach inscribes his body as his final text. (31) Not only did Roach struggle to come to terms with the past of his land and people, but he shared his struggles. The result of that sharing was an art that continues to be admired and studied. On the other hand, Walcott notes a direct connection between nature and the past: Poetry, which is perfection's sweat but which must seem as fresh as the raindrops on a statue's brow, combines the natural and the marmoreal; it conjugates both tenses simultaneously; the past and the present, if the past is the sculpture and the present the beads of dew or rain on the forehead of the past. There is the buried language and there is the individual vocabulary, and the process of poetry is one of excavation and of self-discovery. (from the Nobel Lecture, 1992) Not only does Walcott accept the manmade monuments of the past (marmoreal), but he deems poetry as the element of freshness for something that is otherwise viewed as archaic. The added freshness allows one self-discovery while exploring and encountering unknowns of the past. Roach's and Walcott's work reflect their abilities to cope with history. Walcott's more optimistic view allowed him to come to terms with his background and live longer. Though Caribbean writers were once thought to be stuck in the middle or belong nowhere, Roach and Walcott's implementation of the Caribbean style and voice proved advantageous to their writing careers and continue to set them apart from poets of different genres. Works Cited Bixby, Patrick. "Derek Walcott." Postcolonial Studies at Emory University. 05 March 2007 . Breiner, Laurence A. An Introduction to West Indian Poetry. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1998. Ferguson, Mike. "Poems from Other Cultures and Traditions-Crib/Revision Sheet." North East Wales Institute of Higher Education. 08 March 2007 . Jennings, Lisa Gay. "Renaissance Models for Caribbean Poets: Identity, Authenticity and the Early Modern Lyric Revisited." MS Thesis. Florida State University, 2005. Laughlin, Nicholas. "What the Leaves Hear." The Caribbean Review of Books. 11 February 2007 . Liukkonen, Petri. "Derek (Alton) Walcott (1930-)." 05 March 2007 . McWatt, Mark. "Derek Walcott: An Island Poet and His Sea." Third World Quarterly. Oct. 1998:1607-15. Contemporary Literary Criticism. Gale Group Databases. Hillsborough Public Libraries. Tampa, Florida. 24 Feb. 2007 . Roach, Eric. The Flowering Rock: Collected Poems 1938-1974. Yorkshire: Peepal Tree Books, 1992. Trueblood, Valerie. "On Derek Walcott." The American Poetry Review. June 1978: 7-10. Contemporary Literary Criticism. Gale Group Databases. Hillsborough Public Libraries. Tampa, Florida. 24 Feb. 2007. Walcott, Derek. Collected Poems 1948-1984. New York: Farrar, Strauss & Giroux, 1986. --. "The Antilles: Fragments of Epic Memory." The Nobel Prize in Literature 1992. 05 March 2007. . Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. "Kikuyu." 05 March 2007. . Read More