Omeros by Derek Walcott

Thesis Statement

The publication of Omeros in 1990 marked a milestone in an already remarkable career, Derek Walcott. It's not just because the author, who was born on a small Caribbean island of St. Lucia, went on to win the 1992 Nobel Prize for literature, but because of his poem subtly undermines the genre from which it arises.

Introduction

"Omeros" is a poem by Derek Walcott in 1990. Many consider his best work of Nobel Prize author. This, in particular, retelling stories of the Odyssey, set on the Caribbean island of St. Lucia. Narrative of Omeros is a multilayer. Walcott devoted not a single character like Homer to Achilles in the Iliad or Odyssey of the Odyssey. In contrast, many critics have taken the "hero" Omeros be the island of St. Lucia itself. History can be divided into three main themes that are introduced in Book One of the poems. The first story Homerically behalf of Achilles and Hector for their love of Helen, with great attention to Philoctete, injuring a fisherman based on Homer and Sophocles' Philoctetes. "Secondly, the intertwined story of Sergeant Major Plunkett and his Irish wife Maud, who live on the island, and must be reconciled with the history of British colonization on the island of St. Lucia. The final thread is the fact that the poet-narrator, who comments on the action of the poem and takes part in many transatlantic trips and journeys themselves. poem is ambitious. Walcott takes on Homer, Virgil and Dante, as a form of the poem reminds Dante invented the terza rima. themes presented in this poem include nostalgia, colonialism, historiography, homecoming, paternity, poetry and love. If a topic relates characters together is a universal human desire communication with the past. Walcott was also praised for his rich and inventive use of language in Omeros. Walcott was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1992

Discussion

With Walcott himself voices reservations about the "heroic" dimensions of Omeros is clear that the critics who are guided by the textbook definitions have been reluctant to grant the status of epic. On the one hand, characters Walcott are modest farmers who are fighting not a monumental battle, his persona / narrator is not allowed Olympic attributes, but on the other hand, the necessary flow of the narrative is sometimes broken lyric poem abundance. Nevertheless, Omeros is not literary parodies. The name itself pays homage to the Greek ...