Derek Walcott: XXXIII

Poem Title

Original Publication

CP Page no

XXXIII

Midsummer, New York: Farrar, Strauss & Giroux, 1984

490

Allusion to Classical figure Trojan and Greek commanders

Allusion to Classical place Scamander

Relationship to Classical text The poem ends by quoting the opening words of the Aeneid; the Latin ‘Arma virumque cano’ is said to be recited in American.

Classical/post-Classical intertexts Dedicated to Robert Fitzgerald, the American poet and translator of Classical literary works (including the Aeneid).

Further Comment Revived epic warriors rise to their ‘second fate’ and ‘hammer at the shield of language’.