The Poetry of Derek Walcott 1948-2013 draws from every stage of the poet''s storied career. Here are examples of his very earliest work, like ''In My Eighteenth Year'', published when the poet himself was still a teenager; his first widely celebrated verse, like ''A Far Cry from Africa'', which speaks of violence, of loyalties divided in one''s very blood; his mature work, like ''The Schooner Flight'' from The Star-Apple Kingdom; and his late masterpieces, like the tender ''Sixty Years After'', from the 2010 collection White Egrets.
Across sixty-five years, Walcott has grappled with the themes that have defined his work as they have defined his life: the unsolvable riddle of identity; the painful legacy of colonialism on his native Caribbean island of St Lucia; the mysteries of faith and love; the trauma of growing old, of losing friends, family, one''s own memory. This collection, selected by Walcott''s friend the poet Glyn Maxwell, will prove as enduri
