Derek Walcott: The Hotel Normandie Pool

Poem Title

Original Publication

CP Page no

The Hotel Normandie Pool

The Fortunate Traveller, New York: Farrar, Strauss & Giroux, 1981

439-445

Allusion to Classical figure Narcissus, Ovid (a fellow exiled laureate, appearing as a towelling-robed Roman), proconsul, Augustus, negro Nero’s and chalk Caligulas, Tibullus

Allusion to Classical place Rome, Tomis

Relationship to Classical text Ovid’s Metamorphoses and Tristia are referred to directly, though the poem dwells particularly on the composition of the latter, during the ancient poet’s exile at Tomis.

Further Comment Walcott addresses his vision of Ovid with the words Quis te misit, Magister?