Day 3: Caribbean Poetry

English II: World Literature

Warm-UpDirections: Annotate the poem and answer the

questions below.

1. What strikes you about this poem?

2. How would you describe the diction? List the most important words below.

3. How would you categorize the diction? Language of __________.

4. What is the poem about?

5. How is it different from other poetry of the Caribbean that we’ve read so far?

IslandBy Derek

Walcott

[for Margaret]

Merely to name them is the prose

Of diarists, to make you a name

For readers who like travellers praise

Their beds and beaches as the same;

But island can only exist

If we have loved in them. I seek,

As climate seeks its style, to write

Verse crisp as sand, clear as sunlight,

Cold as the curled wave, ordinary

As a tumbler of island water;

Yet, like a diarist, thereafter

I savour their salt-haunted rooms

(Your body stirring the creased sea

Of crumpled sheets), whose mirrors lose

Our huddled, sleeping images,

Like words which love had hoped to use

Erased with the surf’s pages.

So, like a diarist in sand,

I mark the peace with which you graced

Particular islands, descending

A narrow stair to light the lamps

Against the night’s surf’s noises, shielding

A leaping mantle with one hand,

Or simply scaling fish for supper,

Onions, jack0fish, bread, red snapper;

And on each kiss the harsh sea-taste,

And how by moonlight you were made

To study most the surf’ unyielding

Patience though it seems a waste.

Agenda• warm-up• literary terms/history

quiz• Seminar Prep: Small

group discussion• Seminar: Caribbean

poetry• Writing response

Seminar Expectations 1. All students speak at least once. 2. When someone is speaking, you listen.

3. When you speak, have textual evidence or specific examples to support your point.