59 Derek Walcott Quotes for You to Enjoy

Derek Walcott

Poet

Born: Jan 23, 1930

Because Caribbean Great People Think You

Related authors: Emily Dickinson Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Khalil Gibran Maya Angelou Ralph Waldo Emerson Robert Frost Sophocles Walt Whitman

I don't think poetry has a readership anywhere, really, that's that big. Derek Walcott

Big Think Poetry Readership Anywhere Really

I made a vow that I wouldn't be tempted by what could happen to me if I went to Europe. I thought, 'You could be absorbed in it - it's so seductive, you might lose your own search for identity.' Then, when I did finally go to Europe, I was able to resist it because I had established my own identity. Derek Walcott

Me You Thought Made Lose Own Finally Seductive Able Tempted My Own Could Had Absorb Vow Identity Because Go Did Established Happen Might Then Your Europe Search Resist

I am only one-eighth the writer I might have been had I contained all the fragmented languages of Trinidad. Derek Walcott

Fragmented Only Writer Had Contained Am Been Might Languages

There is no one more deserving of a place in Poets' Corner. Ted Hughes introduced a new kind of landscape into English poetry. The most compelling aspect of his work was his intimacy with nature. Derek Walcott

I think, at the heart of the idea of American democracy, there is something tender. Derek Walcott

Democracy Heart Think Something Tender Idea American

Sometimes what we call tragedy, at least in the theater, are really case histories. They're based on the central figure, and things happen to that person, and they're called tragedy because they're extremely sad. But tragedy always has a glorious thing happen at the end of it. That's what the catharsis is. Derek Walcott

Sad Sometimes Glorious Extremely Case Catharsis Call Because Always Least Tragedy End Histories Person Happen Central Theater Really Figure Based Thing Things Things Happen

I have no curiosity. I'm an island boy. Derek Walcott

Island Boy Curiosity

There's always a need at a critical time for poetry. Derek Walcott

Time Critical Poetry Always Need

Look at Allen Ginsberg. In poems like 'Kaddish' and 'Howl,' you can hear a cantor between the lines. It's fully alive, and I think that's what's missing in modern poetry. It's too dry and cerebral. Derek Walcott

You Think Too Alive Poems Allen Poetry Between Missing Like Look Dry Howl Hear Lines Modern Modern Poetry Cerebral Fully

The Chinese, the African, and the European - they are all there. So the division of the Caribbean experience into being emphatically only African is absurd. Derek Walcott

Experience Caribbean Only Division Absurd African Being Chinese European

You would get some fantastic syntactical phenomena. You would hear people talking in Barbados in the exact melody as a minor character in Shakespeare. Because here you have a thing that was not immured and preserved and mummified, but a voluble language, very active, very swift, very sharp. Derek Walcott

Character You People Language Active Preserved Melody Would Exact Minor Some Shakespeare Sharp Talking Because Hear Hear People Very Get Barbados Fantastic Swift Thing Here Phenomena