Collected Poems, 1948-1984 (Paperback)

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Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Walcott has written nine books of poetry, beginning with 25 Poems (printed in St. Lucia in 1948) and ending with Midsummer ( LJ 1/84). In Collected Poems , Walcott offers us generous selections from all his books, especially Sea Grapes ( LJ 8/76), and he adds the entire text of Another Life (1974), his autobiography in verse and a tribute to the formative influences of the island of St. Lucia. Walcott is a superb stylist who leaves his signature in complex chains of imagery: "The rain falls like knives/ on the kitchen floor./ The sky's heavy drawer was pulled out too suddenly." Collected Poems will certainly rank as one of the important poetry titles of 1986, and no poetry collection will be complete without it. Strongly recommended. Daniel L. Guillory, English Dept., Millikin Univ., Decatur, Ill.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

"One of the most instructive experiences afforded by this collected edition is the spectacle of a poet moving with gradually deepening confidence to found his own poetic domain, independent of the tradition he inherited yet not altogether orphaned from it . . . This is a triumphant book."--Seamus Heaney, The Boston Globe

"It is difficult to think of a poet in our century who--without ever betraying his native sources--has so organically assimilated the evolution of English literature from the Renaissance to the present, who has absorbed the Classical and Judeo-Christian past, and who has mined the history of Western painting as Walcott has. Throughout his entire body of work he has managed to hold in balance his passionate moral concerns with the ideal of art. By his fifty-fifth year Derek Walcott has made his culture, history, and sociology into a myth for our age and into an epic song that has already taken its place in the history of Western literature."--Peter Balakian, Poetry
-- Review

Adam's Song
Air
Another Life
Another Life
As John To Patmos
The Banyan Tree, Old Year's Night
Beachhead
Bleecker Street, Summer
Blues
Brise Marine
The Castaway
Che
Codicil
Cold Spring Harbor
Coral
Crusoe's Island
Crusoe's Journal
Dark August
Early Pompeian
Easter
Egypt, Tobago
Elegy
Endings
Europa
Exile
A Far Cry From Africa
'the Fist Clenched Round My Heart'
The Flock
Forest Of Europe
The Fortunate Traveller
From This Far
The Glory Trumpeter
Goats And Monkeys
God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen
The Gulf
Guyana
The Harbour
Homage To Edward Thomas
Homecoming: Anse La Raye
The Hotel Normandie Pool
Hurucan
Islands
Jean Rhys
Koenig Of The River
Lampfall
Landfall, Grenada
Laventille (for V.s. Naipaul)
A Lesson For This Sunday
A Letter From Brooklyn
The Liberator
Love After Love
Love In The Valley
The Man Who Loved Islands; A Two Page Outline
Map Of Europe
Map Of The New World: 1. Archipelagoes
Mass Man
Midsummer 54
Midsummer, Tobago
Midsummer: 11
Midsummer: 14
Midsummer: 15
Midsummer: 18
Midsummer: 19
Midsummer: 2
Midsummer: 20. Watteau
Midsummer: 21. Wattea
Midsummer: 23
Midsummer: 25
Midsummer: 26
Midsummer: 27
Midsummer: 28
Midsummer: 3
Midsummer: 30
Midsummer: 33
Midsummer: 35
Midsummer: 36
Midsummer: 39
Midsummer: 41
Midsummer: 42
Midsummer: 43. Tropic Zone
Midsummer: 44
Midsummer: 50
Midsummer: 51
Midsummer: 52
Midsummer: 53
Midsummer: 6
Midsummer: 7
Missing The Sea
The Morning Moon
Names
Nearing Forty
Negatives
New World
Nights In The Gardens Of Port Of Spain
Nn A Green Night
North And South
Oddjob, A Bull Terrier
Old New England
Orient And Immortal Wheat
Origins
Parang
Piano Practice
Pocomania
The Polish Rider
Prelude
Preparing For Exile
Return To D'ennery; Rain
Ruins Of A Great House
Sabbaths, W.i.
The Saddhu Of Couva
Saine Lucie
The Schooner Flight
Sea Canes
Sea Grapes
The Sea Is History
A Sea-chantey
The Season Of Phantasmal Peace
The Spoiler's Return
Star
The Star-apple Kingdom
Sunday Lemons
The Swamp
Tales Of The Island: 1. La Riviere Doree
Tales Of The Island: 10. 'adieu Foulard.'
Tales Of The Island: 2. 'qu'un Sang Impur.'
Tales Of The Island: 3. La Belle Qui Fut
Tales Of The Island: 4. 'dance Of Death.'
Tales Of The Island: 5. 'moeurs Anciennes.'
Tales Of The Island: 6
Tales Of The Island: 7. Lotus Eater
Tales Of The Island: 8
Tales Of The Island: 9. 'le Loupgarou.'
Tarpon
To Return To The Trees
Two Poems On The Passing Of An Empire: 1
Two Poems On The Passing Of An Empire: 2
Upstate
Veranda
A Village Life
Volcano
Wales
The Walk
Winding Up
-- Table of Poems from Poem Finder®

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 516 pages
• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux; New edition edition (January 1, 1987)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0374520259
• ISBN-13: 978-0374520250
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 6.2 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #354,665 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Walcott's Incomparable Command of the English Language, March 27, 1999

By A Customer

One cannot recommend this book too highly. It is a certain classic for scores of generations to come. Derek Walcott IS the Carribean. His poems enrich the reader's sense of the Carribean without ever over-sentimentalizing. Walcott's keen observations heighten the familiar, while at times domesticating the exotic. His poem "The Spoiler's Return" is equally humorous and disturbing, as it adresses the social problems of the Carribean, and is best appreciated when read with a Carribean accent. His lines ebb and flow like a tide, but always draw you in and never disappoint. Must read poems of his: "Codicil", "The Spoiler's Return", "LI" (from the Midsummer collection), "The Schooner Flight", "The Fortunate Traveller". If you buy one collection of English poetry published after WWII, this should be the book you purchase. No one alive can make the English language work as powerfully and brilliantly for him/her as Derek Walcott can.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A true Caribbean Genius, April 4, 2001

By A Customer

...i firmly believe he has reperesented the caribbean in a way no- one has ever done before. Derek Walcott's diction and his superb metaphors are yet to be seen in any other caribbean poet. Yet, like the jamaican reggae superstar Bob Marley, Walcott has used his art in such a way that the whole world can identify with his work. His development of major themes such as alienation and cultural identity, Caribbean history , society and development and the pOst colonial era truly represents the region in a realistic way. His poems are truly inspirational and representative of the Caribbean. Walcott's poems are a reseviour for any historian who wishes to know about the history of the Caribbean. One shoud note that Walcott has not only used the english language in his poems but he has created the rhyme and rhythm in such a way to achieve a Caribbean creole(See "Parades Parades"), thus firmly establishing his identity as a caribbean poet and writer.IN CONCLUSION, Walcott is a true genius and we in the caribbean are proud of him.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A work of genius that brings you in touch with a man's heart, January 28, 1997

By A Customer

Derek Walcott's "Collected Poems 1948-1984", is a work of literary genius. It is a classic that echoes the works of the Russian poet Alexander Pushkin, and other great poets of the past. Walcott not only echoes their styles, he has embraced them and made them his own; adding his own strong island flavour. So what you get is a very refreshing read full of images and sounds that bombard the senses; carrying you away to another world. This book is a road into the poet's heart which echoes the loves, passions and sorrows of all humanity