Derek Walcott Uses Poetry to Explore Themes of Ethnicity Essay

I agree with the fact that Walcott uses song to explore themes of ethnicity, cultural ultranationalism and political inequality. However, these arnt the only themes we watch over in his poetry. He also makes use of themes such as spiritednessspan and death and religion. Sea Canes is one of the verses which includes the themes mentioned above.In Sea Canes the poet is found discover a landscape in which he stern turn over ocean canes and animals, all of this in a miserable atmosphere Half of my champions are dead. Here he also mentions religion and disagrees with it by stating that religion is not necessary to respect the dead. He prefers to remember them exactly how they were, instead of see dead people as something supernatural and much nobler than the living. As he looks to the new(prenominal) side of the sea canes he views a boundary surrounded by the beingness of the living and the world of the dead. He metaphorically says that the owls represent us hu human beingss leaving the world of the living to enter the mystical world of the dead.In The Hawk we can locate clear examples of ethnicity, cultural chauvinism and the clash between western and Caribbean culture. Here he mentions the carnival in Trinidad, and says that the only ones that should attend it are the locals. Later in the poem, Walcott mentions the ethnicity and the races of the people at the carnival. The negroes, bastards, mestizos, proud of their Spanish blood, all the people with mixed farm animal who are proud of their Spanish blood, not their native blood. Here Walcott is referring to the colonial powers and their endless control over the Caribbean population. He also compares the Yucatan peninsula with Trinidad. He states that Yucatan has a magnificent landscape while Trinidad has been destroyed during colonialism. Walcott describes the natives as toothless tigers, in one case powerful and strong but now nothing more than a big defenseless cat Caribs, like toothless tigers. Here we can appreciate cultural chauvinism, throughout The Hawk he criticizes colonialism by describing its consequences and shows an awful patriotism for the Caribbean islands.Extract J contains also contains themes of cultural chauvinism and life and death. He starts the poem by describing his house in Saint Lucia. He describes the beautiful landscape, nature and the surrounding found in the Caribbean. He subliminally compares the western landscape with the one in the Caribbean, exaggerating the beauty of the tropical islands compared with Europe. He incidentally makes a radical change and commences to talk or so his dead friend Gregorias. He describes him very passionately and compares him with famous painters from the renaissance brown cherubs of Giotto and Masaccio, which makes us assume he was a first-class painter. He feels tremendous lovingness for him and his death, as he tells us, has dramatically changed Walcotts life.The Walk is another poem which describes Walcotts agony due to the loss of friends. Here he dialogue about his first wife. He used to walk with her up the hills, until the twenty-four hours she fell ill You were weak and lame, So you never came. She then had other interests and finally when she died, Walcott felt completely alone. He repeatedly expresses his grief of having deep in thought(p) his beloved wife and declares that now that shes dead, these walks are very unlike for him.The Bright Field is a further illustration of cultural patriotism and the inconformity of the European culture. The poem begins in London introducing us to a man steeled against the power of London. Probably the man is Walcott himself, criticizing the citizens and the city. He says that the city is depressing and almost of the time people are found in cemeteries or in the underground. In the second paragraph he talks about the British Empire, the empire that their sun that would not set was going down the largest empire in history was now diminishin g and weak. This poem is again about Walcotts cultural past and the former colonial powers that once dwell his islands.I agree that Derek Walcott uses his poetry to explore ethnicity, cultural chauvinism and political inequality, he also talks a lot about the colonial influence of the British and the French had on the West Indies. Death appears much too reminding us that his personal life also plays an important share in his poetry.