Creating the Self: Theme of Identity in the Poetry of Derek Walcott

Name: Markéta Malechová

Course: Practical Language
Lecturer: Stephan Delbos M. F. A., Ph.D.
Date of submission: November 25th 2023
Word count: 1 605
 In a world filled with diverse narratives, the creation of an authentic identity can be a

complex process, shaped by the interplay of cultural dynamics and personal experiences.1

Many critics have commented on the abundant presence of the theme of identity in the poetry

of Derek Walcott.2 There are three distinct ways in which Walcott’s poetry incorporates the

theme of identity and each one can be found in the poems “Blues”, “Map of the New World:

I Archipelagoes” and “Love after Love”. These three approaches that form an identity can be

looked at through the lens of race, cultural heritage and one’s individual perspective of the

self. The first two, race and culture, heavily depend on social perception and are mostly

external forces that shape the identity which are, to an extent, easier to navigate and that is

why they will be examined first. A personal aspect to identity is much more complicated and

nuanced avenue to encompass since it stems from the inner self which is why it will be

analysed last. There is perhaps no aspect more indicative of one’s identity than race, which

supplies an individual with a set of predetermined stereotypes and preconceptions.

In the poem “Blues”, the narrator talks about identity in the context of belonging to a

marginalized racial group:

[...] but not too bright

for a nigger, and not too dark.
I figured we were all
one, whop, nigger, jew,3

1
Beverly Daniel Tatum, “The Complexity of Identity: ‘Who Am I?’,” Readings for Diversity and Social
Justice: An Anthology on Racism, Sexism, Anti-semitism, Heterosexism, Classism and Ableism, (New York:
Routledge, 2000), 9–14, www.usu.edu/mountainwest/files/bennion-workshop/the-complexity-of-identity-who-
am-i.pdf.
2
Patrick Colm Hogan, “Mimeticism, Reactionary Nativism, and the Possibility of Postcolonial Identity in Derek
Walcott’s ‘Dream on Monkey Mountain’,” Research in African Literatures 25, no. 2 (1994): 103–19,
www.jstor.org/stable/4618266.

Mark A. McWatt, “Derek Walcott: An Island Poet and His Sea,” Third World Quarterly 10, no. 4 (1988): 1607–
15, http://www.jstor.org/stable/3992504.

David E. Hoegberg, “Unstable Identities: Allusion and Hybridity in Walcott’s Omeros,” Journal of Caribbean
Literatures 1, no. 1 (1997): 53–66, http://www.jstor.org/stable/40986065.

3
Derek Walcott, Collected Poems, 1948-1984 (New York: Noonday Press, 1988), 329.
In lines three and four the narrator expresses uncertainty about his own racial identity.

According to Charleston Alex Thomas, “His thinking that he wasn’t ‘too bright for a nigger,

and not too dark’ communicates his own struggles with reading and appropriately labelling

(or locating) his complexion into a racial group. [...] he is, in fact, measuring his complexion

against a larger community of ‘niggers’, or outsiders.”4 Thomas uses the term “outsiders” to

refer to the perpetrators who are all themselves part of a minority group and it is this

marginalised status that creates a false sense of security in the narrator, who, after he “figured

we were all one”, is surprised by the sudden violent actions from the side of other members

of oppressed minorities; “[...] They beat this yellow nigger / Black and blue.”5 By this, the

theme of racial identity creates a sense of estrangement and alienation from others instead of

providing a place to belong to. This approach to identity as a way to find a sense of belonging

in the world can also be found in another one of Walcott’s poems.

The poem “Map of the New World: I Archipelagoes” provides a cultural aspect to an

identity:

At the end of this sentence, rain will begin.

At the rain’s edge, a sail.

Slowly the sail will lose sight of islands;

into a mist will go the belief in harbours
of an entire race.

The ten-years war is finished.

[…]

The drizzle tightens like the strings of harp.

A man with clouded eyes picks up the rain
and plucks the first line of the Odyssey.6
Just like Odysseus, the main character of the Greek epic Odyssey, which is directly

referenced in the last stanza, the narrator of this poem also finds himself lost on his way

4
Charleston Alex Thomas, “Walcott’s ‘Blues’ and the Discourse of Black Male Existence,” Journal of West
Indian Literature 21, no. 1/2 (2012): 32, www.jstor.org/stable/24615442.

5
Walcott, Collected Poems, 1948-1984, 329.
6
Walcott, Collected Poems, 1948-1984, 329.
home, as evident in the line “Slowly the sail will lose sight of the islands;” where the narrator

represented by the sail is not only losing sight of the Archipelago but also the possibility of

finding a place to land.7 This loss of home mirrors the loss of cultural identity, forgetting

one’s own roots and values associated with one’s homeland.8 This is further supported in the

second and third line by the phrase “belief in harbours/of an entire race”, which stands for the

hope of home that’s safe and true to one’s origin, which disappears in the “mist” as the ship

keeps sailing away from its native land. The narrator’s original sense of cultural ancestry,

which was linked to the now left behind Archipelago, is in conflict with his affinity for a

newfound cultural belonging. But after this “war is finished” within himself, he can turn the

“drizzle” of suppressed emotions into “the strings of harp” on which he plays his own poetry,

expressive of his newfound identity. A similar action of resolving an inner conflict is also

present in further one of Walcott’s poems.

The narrator of the poem “Love after Love” is at odds with the perception of his

identity; however, the poem focuses on the process of overcoming this conflict and what

follows afterwards:

The time will come

when, with elation,
you will greet yourself arriving
at your own door, in your own mirror,
and each will smile at the other’s welcome,

and say, sit here. Eat.

You will love again the stranger who was your self.
Give wine. Give bread. Give back your heart
to itself, to the stranger who has loved you

all your life, whom you ignored

for another, who knows you by heart.

7
Claire Adler, “Derek Walcott: Collected Poems ‘Map of the New World’ Summary and Analysis,”
GradeSaver, accessed November 12, 2023,
www.gradesaver.com/derek-walcott-collected-poems/study-guide/summary-map-of-the-new-world.
8
François Noudelmann, “Literature: The Archipelago Perspective,” Interdisciplinary Literary Studies 20, no. 2
(2018): 206–7. www.doi.org/10.5325/intelitestud.20.2.0203.
 Take down the love letters from the bookshelf,

the photographs, the desperate notes,

peel your own image from the mirror.
Sit. Feast on your life.9
The poem opens with the narrator, who, after long rejecting a part of his identity, is finally

prepared to confront his self – "the stranger who has loved you [him] all your [his] life” and

accept it – “smile at the other’s welcome”; the subsequent lines, "Give wine. Give bread.

Give back your heart / to itself...," express the reclaiming of the fragments of his identity that

he had previously taken out, suppressed, and "ignored / for another" parts. Those parts,

which aren’t a part of his true identity, represented in the poem by love letters and

photographs, now need to be taken down as the narrator wants to reinvent himself – to “peel

your own image from the mirror.” Despite the poem’s overall optimistic message, the

reclaiming of one’s true self is a painful process; according to Derek Walcott himself,

it obviously comes from an extremely painful position. The ego is a difficult thing to

handle, you know. The self. The identity of the self. It’s not a successful thing, it’s not

like saying one has achieved that.10

To achieve a state where you can let go of the ego and past uncertainties and reach a stage in

life where one can, with clear conscience “love again the stranger who was your self”, is the

narrator’s ultimate goal and a crucial aspect of this self-identity.

Derek Walcott's poetry intricately explores the many factors which contribute to the

shaping of an identity, revealing its nuances through three distinct lenses: race, cultural

heritage, and personal perspective. The examination of race in "Blues" highlights the struggle

of the narrator to define his racial identity which ultimately leads to a sense of estrangement

rather than belonging; in "Map of the New World: I Archipelagoes," cultural identity is

portrayed through the loss of home, mirroring the conflict between one's original roots and

9
Walcott, Collected Poems, 1948-1984, 329.
10
Jan Garden Castro, “Derek Walcott,” Black Renaissance/Renaissance Noire 6, no. 2 (2005): 76.
www.link.gale.com/apps/doc/A137875516/LitRC?u=karlova&sid=googleScholar&xid=551b8cd6.
newfound cultural belonging and "Love after Love" delves into the personal aspect of

identity, depicting the painful yet transformative process of reclaiming one's true self.

According to Erik Erikson, a famous psychoanalytic theorist, when talking about the creation

of identity:

We deal with a process "located" in the core of the individual and yet also in the core

of his communal culture…. In psychological terms, identity formation employs a

process of simultaneous reflection and observation, a process taking place on all

levels of mental functioning, by which the individual judges himself in the light of

what he perceives to be the way in which others judge him in comparison to

themselves and to a typology significant to them.11

The exploration of the theme of identity present in Derek Walcott’s poetry demonstrates that

achieving genuine self-identity is a complex and arduous journey that continues throughout a

person’s lifetime. Ultimately, the poems emphasize the importance of overcoming inner

conflicts and uncertainties to reach a stage where one can, with clear conscience, love

themselves as they are despite societal pressures.

11
Erik Homburger Erikson, Identity, Youth, and Crisis (New York: W. W. Norton, 1968), 22.
Bibliography:

Adler, Claire. “Derek Walcott: Collected Poems ‘Map of the New World’ Summary and
Analysis.” GradeSaver. Accessed November 12, 2023. www.gradesaver.com/derek-walcott-
collected-poems/study-guide/summary-map-of-the-new-world.
Castro, Jan Garden. “Derek Walcott.” Black Renaissance/Renaissance Noire 6, no. 2 (2005):
76.www.link.gale.com/apps/doc/A137875516/LitRCu=karlova&sid=googleScholar&xid=55
1b8cd6.

Erikson, Erik Homburger. Identity, Youth, and Crisis. New York: W. W. Norton, 1968.

Hoegberg, David. “Unstable Identities: Allusion and Hybridity in Walcott’s Omeros.”

Journal of Caribbean Literatures 1, no. 1 (1997): 53–66.
http://www.jstor.org/stable/40986065.

Hogan, Patrick Colm. “Mimeticism, Reactionary Nativism, and the Possibility of

Postcolonial Identity in Derek Walcott’s ‘Dream on Monkey Mountain’.” Research in
African Literatures 25, no. 2 (1994): 103–19. www.jstor.org/stable/4618266.
Noudelmann, François. “Literature: The Archipelago Perspective.” Interdisciplinary Literary
Studies 20, no. 2 (2018): 206–7. www.doi.org/10.5325/intelitestud.20.2.0203.
Tatum, Beverly Daniel. “The Complexity of Identity: ‘Who Am I?’.” Readings for Diversity
and Social Justice: An Anthology on Racism, Sexism, Anti-semitism, Heterosexism, Classism
and Ableism. (New York: Routledge, 2000): 9–14.
https://usu.edu/mountainwest/files/bennion-workshop/the-complexity-of-identity-who-am-
i.pdf.

Thomas, Charleston Alex. “Walcott’s ‘Blues’ and the Discourse of Black Male Existence.”
Journal of West Indian Literature 21, no. 1/2 (2012): 23–41. www.jstor.org/stable/24615442.
McWatt, Mark. “Derek Walcott: An Island Poet and His Sea.” Third World Quarterly. 10, no.
4 (1988): 1607–15. http://www.jstor.org/stable/3992504.
Walcott, Derek. Collected Poems, 1948-84. New York: Noonday Press, 1988.