'The Star-Apple Kingdom' by Derek Walcott

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There were still shards of an ancient pastoral
in those shires of the island where the cattle drank
their pools of shadow from an older sky,
surviving from when the landscape copied such objects as
"Herefords at Sunset in the valley of the Wye."
The mountain water that fell white from the mill wheel
sprinkling like petals from the star-apple trees,
and all of the windmills and sugar mills moved by mules
on the treadmill of Monday to Monday, would repeat
in tongues of water and wind and fire, in tongues
of Mission School pickaninnies, like rivers remembering
their source, Parish Trelawny, Parish St David, Parish
St Andrew, the names afflicting the pastures,
the lime groves and fences of marl stone and the cattle
with a docile longing, an epochal content.
And there were, like old wedding lace in an attic,
among the boas and parasols and the tea-colored
daguerreotypes, hints of an epochal happiness
as ordered and infinite to the child
as the great house road to the Great House
down a perspective of casuarinas plunging green manes
in time to the horses, an orderly life
reduced by lorgnettes day and night, one disc the sun,
the other the moon, reduced into a pier glass:
nannies diminished to dolls, mahogany stairways
no larger than those of an album in which
the flash of cutlery yellows, as gamboge as
the piled cakes of teatime on that latticed
bougainvillea verandah that looked down toward
a prospect of Cuyp-like Herefords under a sky
lurid as a porcelain souvenir with these words:
"Herefords at Sunset in the Valley of the Wye."

Strange, that the rancor of hatred hid in that dream
of slow rivers and lily-like parasols, in snaps
of fine old colonial families, curled at the edge
not from age of from fire or the chemicals, no, not at all,
but because, off at its edges, innocently excluded
stood the groom, the cattle boy, the housemaid, the gardeners,
the tenants, the good Negroes down in the village,
their mouth in the locked jaw of a silent scream.
A scream which would open the doors to swing wildly
all night, that was bringing in heavier clouds,
more black smoke than cloud, frightening the cattle
in whose bulging eyes the Great House diminished;
a scorching wind of a scream
that began to extinguish the fireflies,
that dried the water mill creaking to a stop
as it was about to pronounce Parish Trelawny
all over, in the ancient pastoral voice,
a wind that blew all without bending anything,
neither the leaves of the album nor the lime groves;
blew Nanny floating back in white from a feather
to a chimerical, chemical pin speck that shrank
the drinking Herefords to brown porcelain cows
on a mantelpiece, Trelawny trembling with dusk,
the scorched pastures of the old benign Custos; blew
far the decent servants and the lifelong cook,
and shriveled to a shard that ancient pastoral
of dusk in a gilt-edged frame now catching the evening sun
in Jamaica, making both epochs one.

He looked out from the Great House windows on
clouds that still held the fragrance of fire,
he saw the Botanical Gardens officially drown
in a formal dusk, where governors had strolled
and black gardeners had smiled over glinting shears
at the lilies of parasols on the floating lawns,
the flame trees obeyed his will and lowered their wicks,
the flowers tightened their fists in the name of thrift,
the porcelain lamps of ripe cocoa, the magnolia's jet
dimmed on the one circuit with the ginger lilies
and left a lonely bulb on the verandah,
and, had his mandate extended to that ceiling
of star-apple candelabra, he would have ordered
the sky to sleep, saying, I'm tired,
save the starlight for victories, we can't afford it,
leave the moon on for one more hour,and that's it.
But though his power, the given mandate, extended
from tangerine daybreaks to star-apple dusks,
his hand could not dam that ceaseless torrent of dust
that carried the shacks of the poor, to their root-rock music,
down the gullies of Yallahs and August Town,
to lodge them on thorns of maca, with their rags
crucified by cactus, tins, old tires, cartons;
from the black Warieka Hills the sky glowed fierce as
the dials of a million radios,
a throbbing sunset that glowed like a grid
where the dread beat rose from the jukebox of Kingston.
He saw the fountains dried of quadrilles, the water-music
of the country dancers, the fiddlers like fifes
put aside. He had to heal
this malarial island in its bath of bay leaves,
its forests tossing with fever, the dry cattle
groaning like winches, the grass that kept shaking
its head to remember its name. No vowels left
in the mill wheel, the river. Rock stone. Rock stone.

The mountains rolled like whales through phosphorous stars,
as he swayed like a stone down fathoms into sleep,
drawn by that magnet which pulls down half the world
between a star and a star, by that black power
that has the assassin dreaming of snow,
that poleaxes the tyrant to a sleeping child.
The house is rocking at anchor, but as he falls
his mind is a mill wheel in moonlight,
and he hears, in the sleep of his moonlight, the drowned
bell of Port Royal's cathedral, sees the copper pennies
of bubbles rising from the empty eye-pockets
of green buccaneers, the parrot fish floating
from the frayed shoulders of pirates, sea horses
drawing gowned ladies in their liquid promenade
across the moss-green meadows of the sea;
he heard the drowned choirs under Palisadoes,
a hymn ascending to earth from a heaven inverted
by water, a crab climbing the steeple,
and he climbed from that submarine kingdom
as the evening lights came on in the institute,
the scholars lamplit in their own aquarium,
he saw them mouthing like parrot fish, as he passed
upward from that baptism, their history lessons,
the bubbles like ideas which he could not break:
Jamaica was captured by Penn and Venables,
Port Royal perished in a cataclysmic earthquake.

Before the coruscating façades of cathedrals
from Santiago to Caracas, where penitential archbishops
washed the feet of paupers (a parenthetical moment
that made the Caribbean a baptismal font,
turned butterflies to stone, and whitened like doves
the buzzards circling municipal garbage),
the Caribbean was borne like an elliptical basin
in the hands of acolytes, and a people were absolved
of a history which they did not commit;
the slave pardoned his whip, and the dispossessed
said the rosary of islands for three hundred years,
a hymn that resounded like the hum of the sea
inside a sea cave, as their knees turned to stone,
while the bodies of patriots were melting down walls
still crusted with mute outcries of La Revolucion!
"San Salvador, pray for us,St. Thomas, San Domingo,
ora pro nobis, intercede for us, Sancta Lucia
of no eyes," and when the circular chaplet
reached the last black bead of Sancta Trinidad
they began again, their knees drilled into stone,
where Colon had begun, with San Salvador's bead,
beads of black colonies round the necks of Indians.
And while they prayed for an economic miracle,
ulcers formed on the municipal portraits,
the hotels went up, and the casinos and brothels,
and the empires of tobacco, sugar, and bananas,
until a black woman, shawled like a buzzard,
climbed up the stairs and knocked at the door
of his dream, whispering in the ear of the keyhole:
"Let me in, I'm finished with praying, I'm the Revolution.
I am the darker, the older America."

She was as beautiful as a stone in the sunrise,
her voice had the gutturals of machine guns
across khaki deserts where the cactus flower
detonates like grenades, her sex was the slit throat
of an Indian, her hair had the blue-black sheen of the crow.
She was a black umbrella blown inside out
by the wind of revolution, La Madre Dolorosa,
a black rose of sorrow, a black mine of silence,
raped wife, empty mother, Aztec virgin
transfixed by arrows from a thousand guitars,
a stone full of silence, which, if it gave tongue
to the tortures done in the name of the Father,
would curdle the blood of the marauding wolf,
the fountain of generals, poets, and cripples
who danced without moving over their graves
with each revolution; her Caesarean was stitched
by the teeth of machine guns,and every sunset
she carried the Caribbean's elliptical basin
as she had once carried the penitential napkins
to be the footbath of dictators, Trujillo, Machado,
and those whose faces had yellowed like posters
on municipal walls. Now she stroked his hair
until it turned white, but she would not understand
that he wanted no other power but peace,
that he wanted a revolution without any bloodshed,
he wanted a history without any memory,
streets without statues,
and a geography without myth. He wanted no armies
but those regiments of bananas, thick lances of cane,
and he sobbed,"I am powerless, except for love."
She faded from him, because he could not kill;
she shrunk to a bat that hung day and night
in the back of his brain. He rose in his dream.
(to be continued)


Anonymous submission.

Editor 1 Interpretation

The Star-Apple Kingdom by Derek Walcott: A Masterpiece of Imagery and Symbolism

The Star-Apple Kingdom is a masterpiece of imagery and symbolism, written by Derek Walcott. The poem is a celebration of the Caribbean culture and its rich heritage. The poem uses a range of literary techniques to convey its message, including imagery, symbolism, and allusions. In this literary criticism and interpretation, I will explore the various themes and techniques used in the poem.

Background

Derek Walcott was a Caribbean-born poet and playwright who was born in Saint Lucia, in 1930. He won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1992. His poetry is known for its vivid imagery, lyrical language, and its exploration of Caribbean history and culture. Walcott's work often deals with themes of identity, race, and colonialism.

Imagery

The Star-Apple Kingdom is filled with vivid imagery that transports the reader to the Caribbean. The poem begins with the speaker describing the star-apple tree:

"Great star, growling like a lion from Zion, Burning above the iron mountains"

The use of the word "lion" to describe the star-apple tree is a powerful image. The lion is a symbol of strength, power, and nobility. The star-apple tree is presented as a regal and majestic figure in the landscape. The image of the tree burning above the iron mountains is also a powerful one. It suggests that the tree is a beacon of hope and resistance in the face of oppressive forces.

The speaker goes on to describe the landscape in detail, using imagery to create a sense of place:

"Cane fields, stretching miles away in waves, Green gold, and the ochre sunset’s blaze"

The use of the words "waves" and "green gold" to describe the cane fields creates a sense of movement and abundance. The ochre sunset is also a vivid image that suggests the beauty and warmth of the Caribbean.

Symbolism

The Star-Apple Kingdom is filled with symbols that represent various aspects of Caribbean culture and history. One of the most prominent symbols in the poem is the star-apple tree itself. The tree represents the resilience and strength of the Caribbean people in the face of colonialism and oppression. The tree is described as "growling like a lion from Zion," which suggests that it is a symbol of resistance and defiance.

The poem also makes use of religious symbolism. The speaker describes the Caribbean landscape as a "kingdom," which suggests that it is a place of spiritual significance. The star-apple tree is also described as a "great star," which suggests that it is a symbol of hope and salvation.

Another symbol in the poem is the "green gold" of the cane fields. The image of the cane fields stretching miles away in waves suggests that the production of sugar was a major industry in the Caribbean. The use of the phrase "green gold" to describe the cane fields is also significant. The phrase suggests that sugar was a valuable commodity that brought wealth to the region.

Allusions

The Star-Apple Kingdom makes use of several allusions to historical and literary figures. One of the most prominent allusions in the poem is to Marcus Garvey, a Jamaican political leader and activist. The speaker describes the Caribbean landscape as a "kingdom" and suggests that Garvey was a prophet who predicted the emergence of a new black kingdom in the Caribbean.

The poem also makes reference to the Bible. The image of the star-apple tree "growling like a lion from Zion" is an allusion to the Book of Revelation, which describes the lion of Judah as a symbol of strength and power. The use of biblical imagery in the poem suggests that the Caribbean landscape is a place of spiritual significance.

Themes

The Star-Apple Kingdom explores several themes, including the resilience and strength of the Caribbean people, the legacy of colonialism, and the importance of cultural heritage. The poem celebrates the beauty and richness of Caribbean culture while also acknowledging the challenges and struggles that the region has faced.

One of the key themes in the poem is the resilience of the Caribbean people. The star-apple tree is presented as a symbol of the strength and defiance of the Caribbean people in the face of colonialism and oppression. The image of the tree burning above the iron mountains suggests that the Caribbean people will not be defeated by the forces that seek to oppress them.

The poem also explores the legacy of colonialism in the Caribbean. The image of the green gold of the cane fields suggests that the production of sugar was a major industry in the region. The production of sugar was facilitated by the enslavement of African people, and the legacy of this history is still felt in the region today. The poem acknowledges this history while also celebrating the richness and beauty of Caribbean culture.

Finally, the poem emphasizes the importance of cultural heritage. The Caribbean landscape is presented as a place of spiritual significance, and the speaker suggests that the region has a unique cultural identity that should be celebrated and preserved. The poem celebrates the beauty and richness of Caribbean culture while also emphasizing the importance of maintaining and preserving this cultural heritage.

Conclusion

The Star-Apple Kingdom is a masterpiece of imagery and symbolism that celebrates the beauty and richness of Caribbean culture. The poem makes use of vivid imagery, powerful symbols, and allusions to historical and literary figures to convey its message. The poem explores themes of resilience, colonialism, and cultural heritage, and it celebrates the strength and beauty of the Caribbean people. Overall, The Star-Apple Kingdom is a powerful and moving tribute to the Caribbean culture and its rich history.

Editor 2 Analysis and Explanation

The Star-Apple Kingdom: A Masterpiece of Derek Walcott

The Star-Apple Kingdom is a classic poem written by Derek Walcott, a Nobel laureate in literature. The poem is a masterpiece of poetic expression, which captures the essence of the Caribbean culture and landscape. It is a poem that is rich in imagery, symbolism, and metaphor, and it takes the reader on a journey through the beauty and complexity of the Caribbean world.

The poem is divided into three parts, each of which explores a different aspect of the Caribbean experience. The first part of the poem is an ode to the natural beauty of the Caribbean landscape. Walcott describes the lush vegetation, the clear blue skies, and the crystal-clear waters of the Caribbean sea. He uses vivid imagery to paint a picture of a world that is both beautiful and dangerous. The sea, for example, is described as "a green glass gong," which suggests both its beauty and its power.

The second part of the poem is a reflection on the history of the Caribbean. Walcott explores the legacy of colonialism and slavery, and the impact that these forces have had on the Caribbean people. He describes the "sugar-cane fields" and the "slave quarters," which are symbols of the brutal history of the Caribbean. However, Walcott also celebrates the resilience of the Caribbean people, who have survived and thrived despite the hardships they have faced.

The third part of the poem is a celebration of Caribbean culture. Walcott describes the music, dance, and art of the Caribbean, and he celebrates the unique blend of African, European, and indigenous cultures that have come together to create the Caribbean identity. He describes the "steel bands" and the "calypso rhythms," which are symbols of the vibrant and diverse culture of the Caribbean.

One of the most striking features of The Star-Apple Kingdom is its use of symbolism and metaphor. Walcott uses these literary devices to create a rich and complex portrait of the Caribbean world. For example, the star-apple tree is a symbol of the Caribbean landscape, and it represents the beauty and complexity of the natural world. The tree is described as "a green balloon," which suggests both its beauty and its fragility.

Similarly, the sea is a powerful symbol in the poem. It represents both the beauty and the danger of the Caribbean world. Walcott describes the sea as "a green glass gong," which suggests both its beauty and its power. The sea is also a symbol of the history of the Caribbean, as it was the means by which colonial powers arrived in the region.

The poem also explores the theme of identity, which is a central concern in Caribbean literature. Walcott celebrates the unique blend of cultures that have come together to create the Caribbean identity. He describes the "African, French, and Spanish" influences that have shaped the region, and he celebrates the diversity of the Caribbean people. However, he also acknowledges the challenges that come with this diversity, as the Caribbean people struggle to define their identity in the face of external pressures.

In conclusion, The Star-Apple Kingdom is a masterpiece of poetic expression, which captures the essence of the Caribbean experience. It is a poem that is rich in imagery, symbolism, and metaphor, and it takes the reader on a journey through the beauty and complexity of the Caribbean world. Walcott celebrates the natural beauty of the Caribbean landscape, reflects on the history of the region, and celebrates the unique blend of cultures that have come together to create the Caribbean identity. The poem is a testament to the power of literature to capture the essence of a people and a place, and it is a fitting tribute to the rich and diverse culture of the Caribbean.

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