Shawana Simpson

Tuesday November 26th 2019

Research Essay On Poet Mark Mcwatt

Born and raised in Guyana accomplished poet Mark Mcwatt was born in 1947 in the . He took
his first degree at the University of Toronto in Canada, then went to Leeds University in the
United Kingdom to complete a Ph.D. Mark Mcwatt has published two collections of poetry one
entitled ‘The Language Of El Dorado ‘ (1994) and the other ‘Suspended Sentences’ (2005) The
former was awarded the Guyana Prize whereas the latter, a work of fiction was the winner of the
Commonwealth writers’’ prize in 2006. Mark Mcwatt is a very accomplished writer whose work
conjures up many important concepts within itself, forcing the reader to reflect on life’s
predicaments, past events and also its harsh reality.
McWatt has said his poetry was inspired greatly by the Guyana landscape, and it seems no
accident that his first poetry collection was titled Interiors – emphasizing as it does his work’s
central interplay between an emotional or psychological ‘interior,’ with impressionistic
descriptions of the Guyanese landscape. McWatt’s nuanced, careful and melodious language
builds layered and detailed surroundings for each poem, which seem to at once alter and
respond to interior states.
It is no secret that Mark Mcwatt has the ability to convey a moral throughout his work as this
can be seen in his poem entitled ‘Observing Children’. Within this poem, the reader examines a
persona who walks with an old man, whom he believes is in envy of the youth of children when
in fact,the man is not. The persona describes the playing children as a vision sent for the dying,
alluding to the idea that these children remind the old man of how close his own demise is, as
he is so far from youth. The old man, however, is not jealous of or depressed by the youth of the
kids, he actually is happy to have experienced life and youth at all. Through the interaction of
these two people and the assumption made by the younger individual Mcwatt displays a lesson
revolving around judging a book by it’s cover. The young assume about the old, assume about
life, yet they fail to grasp its beauty within their youth and only grow to appreciate their existence
when youth has left them.
It is ironic that the older person, who is expected to cling onto youth is actually grateful to have
had a life.
In agreement with Nadia Edwards ‘He explores private concerns and obsessions by using a
full range of conceptual resources ‘. We see this in the poem ‘Ole Higue’
Although there has been no official proof of the existence of the Ole Higue , it is still popular in
Caribbean culture and takes an almost physical place in people's minds , as its existence is
recognized in various communities . In the poem entitled ‘Ole Higue ‘ we see things from the
perspective of this mythical creature as it begins rhetorically :

You think I like this stupidness - gallivanting all night without skin, burning myself out like cane-
fire to frighten the foolish?
And for what? A few drops of baby blood?
It is clear that the entity depises what she does , even though she needs to in order to survive .
Diction is used to grab our attention , as he mentions ‘blood seasoned in fat black-pudding’ a
custom familiar to those of the Caribbean . Myth is emphasized here , as it is an important part
of Guyanese culture .

Rivers of dream- The natural landscape of Guyana played a vital role in influencing the poetry
written by Mark Mcwatt . He was born in the interior of Guyana and even though he moved
away to the city for school , he continued to visit whenever possible . In an interview Mcwatt
described the interior districts as wonderful because he got to witness exotic places, mentioning
the rivers of the North west district to which he expressed his love. Mark Mcwatt talks about a
river in his poem ‘Rivers of Dream’ where he describes having rivers in his mind. Here, he
appeals to one’s imagination whether they be focusing on aspirations, life itself or just
impossible dreams one wishes to attain . In stanza two of the poem he begins with:

I may be you and you,

But I am never me

He solidifies the concept of imagination here, as he dreams of being anything but never himself.
We can connect this to the ‘langauage of the imagination , which he defines as ‘ the large
shaping and containing conceptions in which we package our understanding of the world and
express our concern.
In terms of history we can observe the poem ‘Then ‘.

Mcwatt, who is not afraid to speak about the Caribbean’s long painful past speaks of the islands’
history in this poem. Here the poet speaks

In terms of the language of the imagination, the poems ‘Phillip and ‘Gull’ can be referred to . The
former poem speaks about an older man, who compares himself to his young son. Mcwatt uses
alliteration to show the difference between the two , as the young boy is described as having
‘smooth skin’ resulting in sibilant sounds . The repetition of the ‘S’ sound creates a sense of
quiet, reinforcing the meaning of the line which is that his sons situation is more lovely than his
own. The young boy represents youth and happiness whereas the persona represents youth
lost , which longs to be revived but ultimately cannot be.
Mcwatt uses this poem to portray two things , the first being how beautiful youth is and secondly
how ugly the attempt to recapture / loss of youth is. Even though youth is beautiful, it is painful
to lose it and observing it in others is just as painful.
Gull is the final poem, to be discussed and it is told my the perspective of a man within a family
whose son has brought home a bird. The bird was hurt and it was cared for despite this it died
and the son showed cruelty to the dead thing to which the father understood why. The young
boy is upset with death and his father agrees that he should be . The persona also wishes that
his son could be free from the restrictions death poses on us as individuals. Mark Mcwatt,
through this poem, gives the idea that death should not consume us, we should turn away from
the concept that we must accept the harsh reality of death. This can be seen as the persona
does a ‘mandatory frown ‘ as it is what society expects from him as a parent, to teach his son to
tie himself to death.