I don't feel I've arrived home until I get on the beach. All my life, the theater of the sea has been a very strong thing.
Derek WalcottRead
What makes a poem is the discipline inherent in making a poem: trying to fit feelings in the requisite number of syllables and lines, disciplining one's feelings.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The essence of poetry lies in the disciplined craft of capturing emotions within structured forms.
In this quote, Derek Walcott emphasizes that poetry is not just about expressing feelings; it also requires a rigorous discipline in adhering to the specific forms and structures, such as syllables and lines. This balance of emotional expression and structural discipline is what ultimately defines the essence of a poem.
Themes
PoetryDisciplineFeelingsStructureCraft
In practice
Example use cases
A poet could use this quote in a workshop to inspire participants to focus on the craft of poetry.
More from Derek Walcott
All quotes βCreating a poem is a continual process of re-creating your ignorance, in the sense of not knowing what's coming next.
Derek WalcottRead
A long time ago, I thought, as a writer in the Caribbean, 'I don't ever want to have to write 'It was great in Paris.'' Because I don't think, proportionately speaking, that one's experience in a city as opposed to, say, a village in St. Lucia, is superior to the other.
Derek WalcottRead
My mother was a schoolteacher and very, very encouraging. She understood what it meant when I said I wanted to be a writer; both me and my brother wrote.
Derek WalcottRead
When I went to college - when I read Shakespeare or Dickens or Scott - I just felt that, as a citizen of England, a British citizen, this was as much my heritage as any schoolboy's. That is one of the things the Empire taught, that apart from citizenship, the synonymous inheritance of the citizenship was the literature.
Derek WalcottRead
The truest writers are those who see language not as a linguistic process but as a living element.
Derek WalcottRead
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