LITR 5734: Colonial & Postcolonial Literature

Student Poetry Presentation 2005

Derek Walcott’s  “Ruins of a Great House” (pp. 19-21)

Derek Walcott Collected Poems 1948-1984

Poetry Presentation by Luis Sáenz

As a West Indian, Derek Walcott’s poetry contains many allusions to the English poetic tradition as well as a use of symbolism that is personal and Caribbean.  Walcott is concerned with the conflict between the heritage of European and West Indian culture and his role as a nomad between two cultures.  In his “Ruins of a Great House”, Walcott’s speaker ponders the past as he walks through the ruins of a slave-owner’s house. 

Below you will find a list of questions used to analyze poetry borrowed from Michael Meyer’s Thinking and Writing about Literature, published in 1995 by Bedford/St. Martin’s in New York.  These questions and answers will enable the reader to think critically about the poem and focus on important themes in Walcott’s literature. 

1. Who is the speaker?  The speaker is probably a man who is pondering the dark past of a slave-owner’s house as he walks through its ruins. 

2.  Is there a specific setting of time and place?  Since the house is in ruins, perhaps the specific time period is modern.  The setting of the poem could be a deserted area that was once a slave plantation, either in the Caribbean or in the southern United States. 

3. What does the title emphasize?  The title is emphasizing the remains of a once “great” house, which is a metaphor of England.    

4. Is the theme presented directly or indirectly?  The theme is presented indirectly.  By carefully analyzing the poem’s allusions and use of imagery the theme seems to center on the ignorance of England’s role in slavery. 

5. Do any allusions enrich the poem’s meaning?  Some of the poem’s allusions reflect England’s role in slavery.  For example, Walcott calls Englishmen like John Hawkins, Walter Raleigh, and Sir Francis Drake “ancestral murderers and poets” since they were both poets and leaders in slave-trading expeditions. 

6. Do any objects, persons, places, events, or actions have allegorical or symbolical meanings?  The word “Albion” in the poem is an old poetic name for England; thus, the “great house” is a metaphor for England.  Walcott refers to Hawkins, Raleigh, and Drake as “ancestral murderers and poets”.  He calls them “ancestral murderers” because these men enslaved his ancestors and murdered many.  The “death of a great empire” symbolizes the fall of the English empire which was once great.   

7. What is the tone of the poem?  The tone of the poem appears to be bitter throughout the first six stanzas.  The speaker shows feelings of resentment towards some of ruins of the “great house”.  The last two stanzas seem to show the speaker’s sympathy of Albion by admitting that his colony was once part of “bitter faction”, so he begins to reveal compassion.

8. How might biographical information about the author help to determine the central concerns of the poem?  Derek Walcott displays English and West Indian elements in his poetry.  In Walcott’s “A Far Cry from Africa”, the speaker states:

“I who am poised with the blood of both,

Where shall I turn, divided to the vein?

I who have cursed

The drunken officer of British rule, how choose

Between this Africa and the English tongue I love?”

            Walcott does not exclude one culture over the other; in a poem he says, “I have Dutch, nigger and English in me” (The Schooner Flight).

            In “Ruins of a Great House”, Walcott is torn by the fact that England, which is the leader in poetic tradition and literature, played a role in slavery and therefore feels bitterness towards its past.  By understanding some of Walcott’s biography the poem reflects Walcott’s resentment towards his English culture that carries a dark past which, nevertheless, is part of who he is.