Walcott Book Sea Grapes

Derek Walcott
Winding Up

 

from Book : Sea Grapes – D. Walcott

Full original english Text

Caribbean literature

 

The poem ” Winding Up “ by Derek Walcott, published in his book «Sea Grapes» in 1976, explores themes of solitude and reflection on life.

Derek Walcott in poem “Winding Up” describes his life as a man who lives on the water, without family or other distractions, and who has navigated through many possibilities to arrive at this small house facing the sea.

The poem “Winding Up” by Derek Walcott addresses the idea that some things in life are not chosen,
but “we are what we have made” and invites us to consider how we live our existence in a world
that is often full of mediocrity and waste…

 

Below you can read the poem by Derek Walcott: ” Winding Up “, with original english text.

In the menu above or to the side you can find the text of the poem by Derek Walcott ” Winding Up ” translated in other languages: Italian, German, French, Spanish, Chinese, etc.

Enjoy the reading and good winding up.

 

Derek Walcott All the poems > here

 

 Derek Walcott

Winding up

 

Original English Text

Caribbean Poetry

 

I live on the water,

alone. Without wife and children.

I have circled every possibility

to come to this:

 

a low house by grey water,

with windows always open

to the stale sea. We do not choose such things,

 

but we are what we have made.

We suffer, the years pass,

we shed freight but not our need

 

for encumbrances. Love is a stone

that settled on the sea-bed

under grey water. Now, I require nothing

 

from poetry but true feeling,

no pity, no fame, no healing. Silent wife,

we can sit watching grey water,

 

and in a life awash

with mediocrity and trash

live rock-like.

 

I shall unlearn feeling,

unlearn my gift. That is greater

and harder than what passes there for life.

…

..

.

Derek Walcott – Winding up 

from book: Sea Grapes (1976)

Poems Book – Original full English Text

Caribbean Literature

 

 

Derek Walcott All poems > here

 

 

Derek Walcott

Sir Derek Alton Walcott (23 January 1930 – 17 March 2017) was a Saint Lucian poet and playwright. He received the 1992 Nobel Prize in Literature.

Derek Walcott was the University of Alberta’s first distinguished scholar in residence, where he taught undergraduate and graduate writing courses.

Derek Walcott also served as Professor of Poetry at the University of Essex from 2010 to 2013. His works include the Homeric epic poem Omeros (1990),  which many critics view “as Walcott’s major achievement.”

In addition to winning the Nobel Prize, Walcott received many literary awards over the course of his career, including an Obie Award in 1971 for his play Dream on Monkey Mountain, a MacArthur Foundation “genius” award, a Royal Society of Literature Award, the Queen’s Medal for Poetry,

the inaugural OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature,the 2011 T. S. Eliot Prize for his book of poetry White Egrets and the Griffin Trust For Excellence In Poetry Lifetime Recognition Award in 2015. (wikipedia)

 

 

www.yeyebook.com