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Ruins Of A Great House By Derek Walcott Poem

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Derek Walcott’s ambivalence in his Poetry Abstract In this paper I explore Derek Walcott’s ambivalence towards colonizers’ culture through hi poetry. As he is the son of both Anglo-European and the Afro-Caribbean heritage he is divided in his own identity. We find both attraction and repulsion towards the English culture and language all through his poems. Unlike many post colonial poets Walcott does not blame the European culture rather he tries to celebrate the both by universalizing the situations. There is common tendency in his poetry that he tries to minimize the gap between the colonizers and colonized. It is true that sometimes he expresses his misery as a divided self but this is not to attack the colonizer but to show his crisis and his suggestion is to universalize the ideas. An attempt is made below to explore Walcott’s ambivalent attitude towards the colonizers’ culture and language. In the poem “Ruins of a great house” Walcott shows both attraction and repulsion towards the colonizer’s culture. A great house may be any imperial house of the colonizers’. Lizards are compared to the dragon to synthesize the small things with the large. It evokes multi layered meaning. Like an archeologist he investigates the destruction of the colonizers’ practices as well as this ruined empire. As a poet and colonial outsider Walcott assumes the rule of the “Padded cavalry of the mouse” who climbs the grill work wall with his pen and poem to reexamine the ruins of a colonial

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