SOURCE: Lucas, John. “The Sea, the Sea.” New Statesman & Society 3, no. 121 (5 October 1990): 36.

In the following review, Lucas evaluates the strengths and weaknesses of Walcott's Omeros.

Omeros begins with Philoctete, an islander of St Lucia, being photographed by tourists who “try taking / his soul with their cameras.” Then he and his friends, Achille and Hector, turn to their work of cutting down trees to make canoes so that the latter two can pursue their trade as fishermen. Some 320 pages later, the poem ends with Achille hauling his canoe called “In God We Trust” up the beach, and taking from it a catch of shining mackerel. In between these two events lies what must be one of the great poems of our time.

In a short review it is impossible even to hint at the scope and grandeur of Omeros, but it seems fair to say that it's a poem...