SOURCE: Ismond, Patricia. “Walcott Versus Brathwaite.” Caribbean Quarterly 17, nos. 3-4 (September-December 1971): 54-71.

In the following essay, Ismond revisits and reconsiders a once-common comparison between Brathwaite and Derek Walcott. She finds Walcott by far the better craftsman.

Since Edward Lucie-Smith's pronouncement that the West Indies must choose between Walcott and Brathwaite, there has arisen something of a controversy about these two figures. There is a sense in which this kind of quarrel was inevitable in the present atmosphere of liberation, and one of the first things that needs to be established is that it is not an irrelevant question within this context. Some attempt has been made to resolve the issue by pointing out that it is futile to attempt a comparison when the two are obviously doing such widely different things. Those who take this position have not, as far as I can gather, tried to examine the...