SOURCE: Wieland, James. “Adam's Task … : Myths and Fictions in the Poetry of Derek Walcott.” In The Ensphering Mind: History, Myth, and Fictions in the Poetry of Allen Curnow, Nissim Ezekiel, A. D. Hope, A. M. Klein, Christopher Okigbo, and Derek Walcott, pp. 165-88. Washington, D.C.: Three Continents, 1998.

In the following essay, Wieland explores recurring allusions to mythological and fictional themes and characters in Walcott's body of work.

On the dust jacket of Another Life, George Lamming is quoted as having said:

This is not the first time that Walcott has given a hint that his first passion is art as the indispensable language for interpreting reality. He is a colonial who has spent a life trying to dismantle and re-define the cultural apparatus of his imperialist tutelage.

This redefining of which Lamming speaks draws attention to Walcott's relationship with his world and to his concern to make...