Reading Walcott’s poetry can be like confronting a work of art piecemeal to look at each component closely is to see the image whole - the opposite of impressionism, perhaps. There is so much more to unpack within the one stanza! I could write a paragraph on the use of “gawky” alone - which is to say, Walcott’s work invites an exuberance in language. And the image works - the metaphor of a winter forest as an empty orchestra is haunting and memorable as it is deftly executed. Walcott escalates the image, moving from an individual note to “gawky music stands,” eventually to a full “empty orchestra” that quickly dissolves into “manuscripts of snow.” The clever use of “lines ruled” evokes the notation of sheet music, college notebooks and the rigidity of form. The metaphor turns from the very real leaves to notes and then to a shape that registers as sound (“echoing in the ear”), underscored by a smooth pentameter. Ruled on these scattered manuscripts of snow. With gawky music stands, the winter forest The last leaves fell like notes from a piano The opening lines of “Forest of Europe” conjure both the tangible and marvelous, without ever succumbing to surrealism or the fairy tale of Magical Realism. Perhaps that is why, when thinking about Derek Walcott, I keep returning to lines from “Forest of Europe” and “The Prodigal.” Boys would scream it out and perform it and do it and flourish it.” In a 1985 Paris Review interview, Walcott said, “I come from a place that likes grandeur it likes large gestures it is not inhibited by flourish it is a rhetorical society it is a society of physical performance it is a society of style … I grew up in a place in which if you learned poetry, you shouted it out. There is something to be said for the grandiosity in his poetry. The ocean is vast and lends its amplitude to Walcott’s voice. The ocean teems with life, sound and unceasing crashing of waves. The ocean is a persistent metaphor in Walcott’s work. I found his language choices unexpected and the images he presented familiar, but made new through his language. His lack of humility, something I’d originally misinterpreted as arrogance, became a form of resistance. The more I worked on listening and looking at Walcott’s poetry, the more love I found for a poet I once resented. That Walcott, a more-than amateur painter and well-regarded theater director, had an exquisite ear for sound and eye for image. And later, I had to admit that yes, it was good. Halfway through, I stopped to admit that OK, it sounded good. His poetry demanded a certain kind of work from me, and I resented that.īut one afternoon, in order to humorously illustrate how many metaphors he could pack into one line, I read a Walcott poem aloud to a group of friends. Despite his numbers, there was always a sense among the fans that he never quite did enough.I discovered Derek Walcott in graduate school after a professor of Caribbean literature recommended “The Prodigal.” I read it slowly, over the course of several weeks, taking in a section or a stanza at a time. Walcott moved on from the club, transferring to Everton in 2018. To put things into perspective, Walcott scored just 12 goals less for the club than Dennis Bergkamp did, playing 26 games less. He even surpassed Thierry Henry in appearances, the Frenchman making 377. His 65 league goals for Arsenal also make him the sixth highest goalscorer in the club's Premier League history. He was also a surprise inclusion in England's 2006 World Cup squad despite not yet featuring in the Premier League.īy 2008, the winger had also become the youngest player in history to score a hat-trick for England and has since scored eight goals 47 international appearances.ĭuring his 12 years at the club, Walcott scored an impressive 108 goals in 397 games in all competitions, making him the club's joint 15th all-time top scorer. In the same year, the teenager became the youngest player to ever represent England's senior team. Theo Walcott arrived at Arsenal aged 16-years-old in an initial £5m deal from Southampton in 2006. Regardless, taking a look at Walcott's exquisite piece of individual skill, a question arises: Is he one of Arsenal's most underrated player in their Premier League history? His substitute heroics were ultimately futile, however, Liverpool with two late goals to run out 4-2 winners, 5-3 on aggregate. In what seems like a lifetime ago, Theo Walcott provided one of the greatest assists in Champions League history against rivals Liverpool exactly 12 years ago.Īged just 19-years-old, the inexplicably speedy winger collected the ball on the edge of his own box, subsequently running the entire length of the pitch before feeding Emmanuel Adebayor to finish.
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