Derek Walcott: The Caribbean Poet. Derek Alton Walcott was born in St. Lucia, a small island in the West Indies, in 1930. His parents were middle-class Protestants in a society of predominantly poor Catholics. He studied literature at St. Mary's College in St. Lucia and at the University of the West Indies in Jamaica. A man of two distinct and opposite bloodlines; English and African, he often writes of the struggle within. At the age of …showed first 75 words of 1549 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1549 total…all life is sacred and not just one color or the other. The lack of militancy within it is refreshing and beautiful. The importance of Walcott's work amounts to a poetic statement of man's struggle for self fulfillment and his attempt to attain harmony with nature (Asein 62). His objectivity adds flavor to the poem and leaves the readers to make their own judgments. This makes the poem unprejudiced and all the more enjoyable to read.