Derek Walcott a Saint Lucian Poet: Between the Country and the Town

The chapter locates Derek Walcott’s poetry within Saint Lucia through a review of the poet in a chronology focused on location and events; the contexts of class and colour; land, people and language. It locates selected poems and Walcott’s use of language within these contexts, paying particular attention to the use of Kwéyòl in Walcott’s poems and how this impacts upon the divisions between civil society represented as vil-‘town’ and creole society represented by hòtè –‘country’. The chapter is supported by a number of photographs by John Robert Lee, both of the context and related to Walcott. It gives a tentative outline of the potential conflicts faced by Walcott between his own vil and hòtè inheritances and also gives an assessment of Walcott’s impact on, and his legacy to, his Saint Lucian context. The chapter is jointly produced by two Saint Lucian writers: Morgan Dalphinis and John Robert Lee, a close friend of Derek Walcott.