MAÑANA,
MAÑANA BY DEREK WALCOTT
“The experience of growing
up on the isolated volcanic island, an ex-British colony, has had a strong
influence on Walcott's life and work”.
“Derek Walcott felt himself
deeply-rooted in
The poet tries to remember through the poem all
places he has not visited yet due to the lack of time or the lack of money.
With the title of the
poem readers can think that these places can be visited in the future. People
usually say that they will do a journey to a lot of places, but finally they do
not go out of the city where they were born.
This situation occurs
not only with the journey but with all things. Tomorrow is better than today in
order to do something not very important.
If it is impossible
to visit other cities, the last option is to see magazines as the author says
in verse 10.
In spite of not
having been there, the poet imagines and remembers some important
characteristics of cities such as
However, he loves his
island and the countryside around there “to have loved one horizon is
insularity” (verse 6). Moreover, “Walcott has studied the conflict
between the heritage of European and West Indian culture, the long way from
slavery to independence, and his own role as a nomad between cultures. His
poems are characterized by allusions to the English poetic tradition and a
symbolic imagination that is at once personal and Caribbean”. (Derek
Walcott (1930-)).
The poem is written
in the first person because the author tells his own experience and it gives a
real sensation but he also uses the second person to refer to readers and then,
they feel participants of the action.
It is an
autobiographical poem.
There is a comparison: “like a hearse” (verse 15),
parallelisms: “it blindfolds vision, it narrows experience” (verse
7) and “the spirit is willing, but the mind is dirty” (verse 8)
The poem is divided in three parts:
Firstly, the author is interested in visiting unknown cities for him.
Secondly, he describes the pleasure and the freedom that he feels on his
island.
Finally, he plans the possibility of escaping towards another different world
removed from the island.
In this part, we can
observe that the poet makes a reference about leaving his native city in order
to go to another strange place.
“Among
its subjects are sufferings of exile and the contemporary
The task of
the bard is to sing of lost lives and a new hope” (Derek Walcott (1930)).
CONCLUSION
I think he does not want to leave the island where he passed his
childhood.
It seems that he must go out there for an important reason despite his
will.
He must probably begin a new life, but not very good because he compares
a taxi with a hearse.
It seems to be the beginning of death. He cannot decide what to do, but
he must get in.
I think that the poem is a metaphor of life. People cannot do anything
to avoid death. For this, you must get in a hearse to go to a bad place that
you do not like, but it is your obligation.
On the other hand, I think that it is an optimistic poem because it
shows that there are other days, a tomorrow, to do all things that you can
never have done. It makes a reflection about profiting the time.
The poet
animates the readers to live an adventure.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
- Derek
Walcott- Biography, www.http://nobelprize.org/literature/laureates/1992/walcott-bio.html,
visited April 17 2006
- Derek (