The Prodigal: A Poem

#184
Title: The Prodigal: A Poem
Author: Derek Walcott
Publisher: Farrar Straus Giroux
Year: 1977
Country: St. Lucia
105 pages

This book-length poem in sections, most in blank verse (iambic pentameter or a foot or two more per line), ranges across countries, moods, and relationships to create a memoir/travelogue spanning time and continents. Walcott always turns a pretty phrase; here, I admire his use of repetition, which includes both phrases and images. These reiterations echo both the repetitions--with variations--of the landscapes, and foreground the reader's awareness of language. The poem itself seems to serve as an Ariadne's thread to guide the poet, and reader, back to Saint Lucia and the opportunity to come to terms with his own aging and mortality.