Derek Walcott: Two Poems on the Passing of an Empire

Poem Title

Original Publication

CP Page no

Two Poems on the Passing of an Empire

 

In a Green Night, London: J. Cape, 1962

35

Allusion to Classical figure Proconsuls. The one-eyed veteran who stoops ‘as if threading an eternal needle’ evokes the Moirai.

Allusion to Classical place Rome

Classical/post-Classical intertexts The waning of the Roman Empire is compared with that of the British, particularly in the Caribbean.