To me, this poem is Walcott’s way of trying to come to terms with his history and help alleviate his feelings of anger about England’s colonization of his homeland.

The first two stanzas describe a great house that seems to be unoccupied. It is a plantation home whose main crop is limes. The reason I say it’s empty is because it is covered in dust and has moths. One problem that I couldn’t identify is his phrase "moth-like girls." I couldn’t figure out what it meant; maybe someone could help me with that. There is an "axle and coach wheel that is silted under the muck of cattle droppings." This tells me that they have not been moved and are being over run by unkempt livestock. The smell of dead limes quickens in the nose. It is the "leprosy of the empire." This is one conflict of colonization that Walcott must deal with because England has allowed this once great house to deteriorate into what it is now. After saying goodbye to the green fields and happy groves, Walcott again speaks about the home’s elegance because is have Grecian marble. However, this is all temporary as Walcott explains when he uses the phrase "deciduous beauty prospered and is gone." Deciduous describes something that is seasonal, meaning temporary. On one front, he is talking about the crops only being picked during certain seasons, but also, I believe he’s talking about the climate changing once England decided to colonize the West Indies. The reader can tell that this once prosperous plantation is overgrown when a shovel is found beneath a blanket of dead leaves. These leaves also hide the bones of an animal of human that had fallen from days and times of evil. This last statement affected me because I couldn’t figure out why the days were evil. Was this statement that of the colonizer justifying his actions of colonization because he was doing this evil world a favor by ridding the evil with the grace of the English? Or perhaps this is Walcott’s internal voice trying to come to terms with his appreciation of what England offered him? But maybe, this is a larger question that more personally involves Walcott because he is a descendant of slavery. Plantations were usually the homes of slave owners and Walcott did mention "Faulkner’s South" earlier in this stanza. His grandmothers were slaves, so he could be talking about the evilness of slavery. More light will be shed on this when we get to the third stanza of this passage.

In the second stanza, Walcott goes into more detail about the crop of limes that was grown on this land. One thing to note about limes is that the Spaniards introduced them to the East Indies; only later did they migrate to the West Indies to become a prosperous crop. Walcott doesn’t seem to remember for certain if that was the original crop; perhaps this represents his forgetting his own history because he is adopting England’s ideas and cultural aspects. The limes were grown from the silt deposited on the banks of the river’s skirt. As the river flows, it carries out evil and deposits new life. The flowing of the river obliterates the hurt. The craftsmen that built the home and the gates have been exiled and replaced. They protected the house from guilt, but that is an irrelevant now because they are exiled, they cannot protect it any longer so worms and mice have moved in and now inhabit this once great house. The Bible and war protect this abuse of ignorance by the English against the native craftsman.

In the third stanza, he describes the green lawn as being separated by low walls of stone. Perhaps until the invasion of England, the land was not fenced in and separated from the rest. The river is not bound by the restraints of the English and it is free to flow through the stone walls. This stanza returns to the first image of slavery when Walcott mentions a famous band of sea adventurers named Hawkins, Walter Raleigh, and Drake. These men were working for the Queen, but they were slave traders who targeted the Indies. They were also very violent as shown in Walcott’s description of how their ancestral murders are more puzzling now then the other crimes they committed- like selling humans into slavery. As Walcott remembers the "green age," which is one of stability, harmony, and life, he compares it to the stench of the charnel galleon’s text. A charnel room is a room where the bones of the dead are stored. Galleons are another name for Spanish fleets that sailed to the Indies to collect treasures. (People of the West Indies were not allowed to trade with Spain, so ships would wait at the very tip of England for these merchant ships and rob them- what the above mentioned men would do too) The rot of evil that these men did can still be smelled even though the men are gone. The ashes that remain from the burning flesh are lifted and blind the mind. I believe that this is Walcott’s way of saying he can overlook England’s intrusion into his life. The coincidences that Walcott is a descendant of slavery, that Hawkins and his friends were slave traders, that the Spaniards brought limes to the country, and that trade with Spain was outlawed are tied up in the final stanza.

Walcott is "ablaze with rage" as he’s thinking of these coincidences. However, two very important images are concluded in the final stanza. The first is the words of Donne, "no man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main." The second image is that Albion, or England, was once a colony like ours. These two statements taken together help resolve Walcott’s struggle to come to terms with his colonization. In the last five lines of the poem, he talks about the vain expense of bitter factions and the fact that the heart’s desire is not relevant when one has compassion for another. This final stanza reveals to me that while Walcott is angry at England’s intrusion into his life by bringing slavery, by exiling his people, and by ignoring the beauty of his native land, his anger can be minimized because he realizes that England’s actual result was not what they originally had intended.

In this poem, I believe that Walcott’s description of an old, deserted plantation home, the rotting lime fields, and the men who brought slavery to his people serve to assist Walcott in coming to terms with his history and empathizing with England’s position. My question to you is do you think that in comparing this poem to others we have read, Walcott’s internal debating dialogue has ceased to become as much a conflict upon the poem’s conclusion? Has the faction in his head subsided somewhat?

Andrea agreed with the discussion and added that Walcott is outraged at the colonial treatment of his people; however, there is a sudden shift in the final lines when Walcott attempts to rationalize the colonial experience.

Verena started a discussion when she asked when was England ever colonized Jill and Sandra said that Rome had colonized England and that several battles had been fought throughout England as they attempted to regain their independence.

Carolyn thought that the idea that England had been colonized too calmed Walcott down and made him more sympathetic to the question of why this happened to him.

A discussion ensued upon the use of Donne’s quotation in the poem. Dr. White said that it was from one of Donne’s mediations or sermons and not from any of his poetry. Carolyn thought Walcott’s shift at the end of the poem was significant to a religious experience. Dr. White agreed that Walcott’s response at the end is rationalized. He thought it was strange that coal is used as an image of compassion. Sandra said that reference was from the Bible, to "heap coals on your enemies’ head" by forgiving them.

Sylvia commented on the fact that the limes were imported just like the birds were in another poem of Walcott’s.

The class then discussed the different symbolic meanings of green. Envy, jealousy, nature, rebirth were some that were mentioned by various people. Dr. White commented that slaves and limes were both imported.

Jill said that maybe the land was rotting because of all the images of rotting in the poem.

Dr. White discussed the gothic images and that history vanishes into gothic and mythic. The history is driven off. Gothic replaces history. Sylvia gave the "lizard’s dragonish claws" as a gothic example. The class also gave other examples. April didn’t understand the displacement of history that Dr. White had mentioned. Dr. White used Faulkner as an example. If you read it wrong, the slavery can be lost as one more gothic element. Or with Jane Eyre, the history of colonization can be gothicized. Bertha is a descendant of mixed lines. It’s easy to forget it’s a story about the West Indies. But in terms of history in this poem... There is a resolution in comparison.

Verena says that the epigram from Browne—does he say it doesn’t matter when you’re dead... Kasi said hate is in vain. Dr. White explained that you can rage, but it just feeds the flames. Sylvia brought up that Walcott has these dramatic shifts in his poetry. Dr. White said the stronger point is rage. In the next poem, he’ll be angry again. Kasi concurred by saying that it’s like your car—you have road rage, but you come back to yourself.

Verena liked the word play in the first lines with "disject." It suggests members that don’t belong.

Dr. White says it’s a standard image of gothic literature. That image of haunting seems important in postcolonial studies. White compares the gothic images in Roy’s novel and in Walcott for a while with the similarities of Roy’s history house and the house in Walcott’s poem.

Suganthi said that the river in Roy’s novel is almost like a character. Jennifer said the river is important too in the poem. The silt is from the remains of the river. It says the river flows and obliterates hurt. The walls dip into the rivulet show that the river is important. The decay in the History House is different because it’s been remodeled and is still in use.