Walcott, Derek - Derek Walcott and Rebekah Presson (interview date 1992)
Derek Walcott and Rebekah Presson (interview date 1992)
SOURCE: Walcott, Derek, and Rebekah Presson. “The Man Who Keeps the English Language Alive: An Interview with Derek Walcott.” New Letters 59, no. 1 (1992): 8-15.
[The following interview focuses on Walcott's epic poem, Omeros.]
[Presson]: The last time we talked you made much of what Omeros is not, and so what would you say it is?
[Walcott]: It's long. I don't know. In the reviews that have been coming out, they've been using the word “epic” a lot. I just reread it again, and I suppose in terms of the scale of it—as an undertaking—it's large and does cover a lot of geographic elements, historical ground. I think that's the word. I think the reason why I hesitate about calling it that is I think any work in which the narrator is almost central is not really an epic. It's not like a heroic epic. I guess that's what I think of it, that since I am...
[The entire page is 1990 words long]
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