Derek Walcott: The Caribbean Poet.
             Derek Alton Walcott was born in St. Lucia, a small island in the West Indies, in 1930. His parents were middle-class Protestants in a society of predominantly poor Catholics. He studied literature at St. Mary's College in St. Lucia and at the University of the West Indies in Jamaica. A man of two distinct and opposite bloodlines; English and African, he often writes of the struggle within. At the age of eighteen, he financed the publication of his first collection of poetry titled Twenty-Five Poems. He writes plays as well as poetry and has been awarded an Obie for his play Dream on Monkey Mountain. In 1992, after years of waiting, Derek Walcott won the Nobel Prize for literature, and has been cited as the first great poet of West Indian culture (Anderson 73).
             His mother, being actively involved in the local theater during his early years, strongly influenced his artistic development. Walcott's father, a painter with some degree of talent, also helped influence his work. The self-portrait of his father gave him motivation and he felt a sense of continuity while practicing his art. This combined parental support, at a very early age, gave him the confidence to start painting. Often, in his youth, he imitated his favorite writers and tried to follow in their footsteps. Walcott's strongest influences came from English born writers like Dylan Thomas and Hart Crane. He still loves the ringing line and the musical quality that some poets have within their verse (Baugh 49-50).
             As he has grown, however, one can clearly see that Derek Walcott has developed his own unique style of writing. Most of his works reflect the spirit of the West Indies and the cultural division among the peoples within this region. In his poetry, Walcott also deals with the anger, hurt and resentment associated with colonialism. His individual experience has become part of what it means to be West...