Caribbean Poetry (Essay 3)

Sea Canes - Derek Walcott

Time steals the life of all people, leaving us alone, without friends. In Derek Walcott’s “Sea Canes” the narrator weeps for his lost companions. He describes how much he wants to have them back, but “earth” can only offer new ones in their place. As we read in Chinua Achebe’s “Things Fall Apart” and with a lot of other Caribbean poetry, “Sea Canes” continues to illustrate the theme of life, death, and the ultimate change that falls between them.

An emotional connection is created through the imagery and narrator’s descriptions that make the reader become extremely enthralled in his feelings. Walcott describes the ocean, the embodiment of change, as carrying the memories of the past toward the shore. Emotion flows from the author as he continues throughout the poem and relives these precious moments with old friends. Experiences from these lost friends remind people of the things they shared while together, but are gone, and all that’s left are memories that will be carried forever by those who were there. Although they are fresh in mind, they will never be relived as nothing will ever live up to the standards set by the people who impact us so deeply. Walcott describes his struggle with this change, and how much he wants to cling on to his old friends, but can’t. Even though the world offers him new friends in return, he would rather have no friends at all then replace his old friends. In his mind, his companions are irreplaceable.

Walcott’s use of imagery brings his words to life so easily that he paints a picture in the reader’s mind of the shores of this lonely place. The sand is calm while the moon reflects off the ocean, alone in the world with nowhere to turn. The thoughts of friends-past causes time to pass un-noticed, floating in an abyss of dreams and happiness. The minds of people are carried through an endless sea of time living in the memories once shared by those now lost.
The memories still carried by the waves beat against the cliffs in a distance. They were a very important part of his life, but by losing them something better formed. It brought a sense so strong, forever bright and unwinding, which broke through the memories. They seem so realistic having brought the people we miss and love back to us just as they were.

Change is a very hard aspect of life to deal with. Caribbean poets such as Achebe and Walcott center their pieces around the ideals of life, death, and the struggle of the change between them. It could easily be said that their race, history and geographical location are the fuels that drove these emotional works. “Sea Canes” is the perfect example of the emotional human turmoil that comes associated with struggling to deal with change.

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Derek Walcott

Sea Canes

Half my friends are dead.
I will make you new ones, said earth
No, give me them back, as they were, instead,
with faults and all, I cried.

Tonight I can snatch their talk
from the faint surf's drone
through the canes, but I cannot walk

on the moonlit leaves of ocean
down that white road alone,
or float with the dreaming motion

of owls leaving earth's load.
O earth, the number of friends you keep
exceeds those left to be loved.

The sea-canes by the cliff flash green and silver;
they were the seraph lances of my faith,
but out of what is lost grows something stronger

that has the rational radiance of stone,
enduring moonlight, further than despair,
strong as the wind, that through dividing canes

brings those we love before us, as they were,
with faults and all, not nobler, just there.

from Sea Grapes, 1971