Word: walcott
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...White Egrets” is aptly named; images of the splendid birds are scattered throughout the collection. In one instance, the birds become symbols of immortality as Walcott contemplates the inevitable mortality of himself and his friends. The birds, part of a natural cycle, return annually, seemingly unchanged, while the personalities around him disappear year by year: “Some friends, the few I have left / are dying, but the egrets stalk through the rain / as if nothing mortal can affect them, or they lift / like abrupt angels, sail, then settle again.” Elsewhere, he himself identifies...
Even when Walcott is not explicitly contemplating the process of aging, whiteness saturates his vision; he notices the white shore, white ferries, white wine, the “white scream” of birds, and even the whiteness of the page as his poem comes to a close. In his constant encounters with objects washed in white, Walcott is trying to create a kind of visual rhyme. In his poem “In Italy,” in which he speaks of his experience in Italy as an elderly man, he writes, “my hair rhymes with...
...when Walcott turns his attention to his own poetry, however, that he displays the heights of his lyrical abilities. As he gazes once more at egrets taking flight in the distance, he compares them to the poems that he is sending forth into the world: “they are the bleached regrets / of an old man’s memoirs, printed stanzas / showing their hinged wings like wide open secrets.” The “bleached” quality of his thoughts is not due to his age alone; the poet is presenting himself to the world?...
...Though Walcott displays his most naked doubts and feelings, his collection never becomes too self-serious. His sense of humor helps to create a variety of tone throughout his work. Walcott reveals a keen wit, peppering his verse with quips such as, “Well, if we burnt, it was at least New York...
...already behind him, Walcott’s concern lies not only with the precariousness of his physical life, but also with the lifespan of the poetry that he has spent a lifetime crafting. This collection, however, indicates that there is no cause for the poet’s anxiety. Walcott has managed to shape a sequence of poems as blindingly majestic as the birds for which they are named...