Derek Walcott

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Themes in Derek Walcott's "The Almond Trees" and "Ruins of a Great House."

Summary:

Derek Walcott's poems "The Almond Trees" and "Ruins of a Great House" explore themes of colonialism and its aftermath. In "The Almond Trees," the focus is on the resilience and continuity of life despite the scars of history. "Ruins of a Great House" delves into the decay of colonial power and the inevitable decline that follows exploitation and oppression.

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What are the themes in Derek Walcott's "Ruins of a Great House" and "The Almond Trees"?

Due to limited access to both poems, below are some ideas to help get you started.
Two dominant themes in Derek Walcott's poem "Ruins of a Great House" are certainly death and decay. Death is first alluded to in the lines of Sir Thomas Browne quoted before Walcott begins his own poem, particularly in the clauses, "[I]it cannot be long before we lie down in darknes, and have our light in ashes"; the lines are quoted from Sir Thomas Browne's book fully titled Hydriotaphia, Urn Burial, or a Brief Discourse of the Sepulchral Urns lately found in Norfolk. Death and decay are referred to again in the first two lines of Walcott's poem in reference to the "disjecta members," which means in Latin scattered members, of "this Great House" and the "moth-like girls." We even see death and decay being referred to in several images, such as...

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"dead leaves" and "rotting lime."

But the poem itself is about much more than just death and decay. There are several allusions in the poem that make clear references to colonial slavery, and the speaker ends by feeling a unity between what was once the slave master and all of humanity, including the poem's speaker.

The first reference to slavery is evident in the reference to the "Great House," which is clearly a manor house, and slaves worked its lime orchards. A more obvious reference to slavery is found in the first two lines of the final stanza: "Ablaze with rage I thought, / Some slave is rotting in this manorial lake." In the second-to-last stanza, more subtle references to slavery can be seen in the allusions to "Hawkins, Walter Raleigh, [and] Drake," which the poet calls "[a]ncestral murderers and poets." The name Hawkins refers to David Hawkins, a philosopher who was also the historian of the Manhattan Project, which developed the nuclear bomb, enslaving all of the world to its deadly powers. The name Walter Raleigh refers to Sir Walter Raleigh who during Queen Elizabeth's reign first explored Virginia, exploiting Native Americans. Finally, the name Drake refers to Sir Francis Drake, who was also an explorer and slaver during Elizabethan times.

It's also important to note that the poem ends with an allusion to John Donne's poem "No Man is An Island," which argues all of mankind's sorrows are connected due to mankind's unity. Hence, all in all, the poem seems to be arguing that, despite the fact that slaves and slaveholders have existed, all mankind is connected in death. Hence, some of the poem's themes include death, decay, slavery, and unity of man.

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What are the themes in Derek Walcott's "The Almond Trees"?

The main theme in the poem, "The Almond Trees," is the beauty and power of nature. The eponymous almond trees are personified throughout the poem to emphasize their power and presence. The speaker, for example, describes their "shining postures," their "writhing trunks," and their "aged limbs." In the penultimate stanza, the speaker exclaims, "Their bodies fiercely shine!" The implication is that the almond trees are alive, and that they thus have a will of their own. They are fierce and resilient, "endur(ing) their furnace" in the blistering heat of the sun.

The trees are also beautiful. Their limbs are "coppery," and their "lengthened shapes amaze the sun." To emphasize their beauty, the trees are also compared to the young girls sunbathing on the beach. These sunbathers are described as "brown daphnes," an allusion to the Greek nymph of the same name who was renowned for her beauty. At the end of the poem, the speaker declares that "Aged trees and oiled limbs share a common colour!" This comparison emphasizes the link between the trees and the young girls on the beach, and thus emphasizes the enduring beauty of the trees.

The power of nature is also emphasized throughout the poem when the speaker describes the "fierce acetylene air" and the "cold churning ocean." The heat of the sun is also emphasized with vocabulary like "toasting," "singed," white-hot," "fire," and "furnace." Thus, whether it's the fierce, dignified resilience of the trees, the relentless indifference of the ocean, or the scorching, burning heat of the sun, the natural world is portrayed and revered as powerful and dominating.

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