Omeros
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"Omeros" is a 1990 poem by Derek Walcott. Many consider it the finest work of this Nobel Prize winning author. It is, in part, a retelling of the story of the Odyssey, set on the Caribbean island of St. Lucia.
The narrative of Omeros is multilayered. Walcott focuses on no single character as does Homer with Achilles in the Iliad or Odysseus in the Odyssey. Rather, many critics have taken the "hero" of Omeros to be the island of St. Lucia itself.
The story can be divided into three main threads, all of which are introduced in Book One of the poem. The first is the story of the Homerically named Achille and Hector over their love for Helen, with considerable attention played to Philoctete, an injured fisherman based on Homer's and Sophocles' Philoctetes. The second is the interwoven story of Sergeant Major Plunkett and his Irish wife Maude, who live on the island and must reconcile themselves to the history of British colonization on St. Lucia. The final thread is that of the poet-narrator, who comments on the action of the poem and partakes in many trans-Atlantic journeys and wanderings himself.
The poem is ambitious in scope. Walcott takes on Homer, Vergil, and also Dante, as the form of the poem is reminiscent of the Dante-invented terza rima. Themes presented in this poem include nostalgia, colonialism, historiography, homecoming, paternity, poetry, and love. If any theme binds the characters together, it is a universal human desire for communion with the past.
Walcott has also been praised for his rich and inventive use of language in Omeros.
Walcott was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1992.
