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Joseph Brodsky, Seamus Heaney, Derek Walcott--three Nobel laureates and threeof our generation's greatest poets explore the misconceptions and mythologiesthat surround one of America's most famous and beloved deceased poets--RobertFrost.Amazon.com Review
Joseph Brodsky, Seamus Heaney, and Derek Walcott, Nobellaureates all, have written perceptive, affectionate, admiring essayson Robert Frost. Eschewing both of the prevailing caricatures of Frost(the irascible but beloved cracker-barrel philosopher and the shallowmegalomaniac), these writers pay careful attention to the poemsthemselves. They open doors into the world of words that Frostconstructed, and help readers understand the music and the ideas inthose worlds. Derek Walcott's dark reading of Frost's much-quotedclassic, "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening," is aloneworth the price of Homage to Robert Frost. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

This is a wonderful companion to hearing Frost's seemingly off handed reading of his material
This is a marvelous little book to be savoured at every chance and to be re-read as well. Its instructive for both the reader of poetry and the writer of poetry and every student of poetry should read this little masterpiece.It contains many insights and adds a much needed depth to the Frost that many may suspect is not there. Brodsky's erudite rendering of Frost as a student of Virgil makes me want to run back to Virgil and read other works by him besides the Aeneid and go to The Eclogues, also called Bucolics.

Brodsky's explanation of Frost's work is the best I've seen
If you need to read one critical examination of Robert Frost,buy this& read Joseph Brodsky's fantastic, accessible take on "Home Burial".What a great book this is--three fine poets examining a brilliant poet.But it is Brodsky who best holds to the Frost credo--he speaks clearly and plainly.

A glimpse into how poets read poets
Brodsky, Heaney, and Walcott helped me hear the music of Frost's poetry. They don't analyze all that many poems but the insights they offer open the door to others. For example, I learned about Frost's idea of "Sentence-Sounds" in Brodsky's review of "Home Burial" and his idea of the "Sounds of Sense" in Heaney's discussion of "Desert Places". Then when I read Frost's "To a Thinker", which does not appear in "Homage to Frost", I came across the line "...From sound to sense and back to sound", and of course I recognized a familiar theme. If you like Frost, this book makes a nice companion reader. ... Read more

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When Derek Walcott was awarded the Nobel Prize, he was cited for "a poetic oeuvre of great luminosity, sustained by a historical vision, the outcome of a multicultural commitment." The lively interviews in this collection reveal Walcott's generous and brilliant intelligence as well as his strong, forthright opinions. He discusses the craft of poetry, the status of contemporary poetry and drama, his founding of the Trinidad Theatre Workshop, and his views on a number of influential writers, including Eliot, Auden, Brodsky, Heaney, and Naipaul.

Boldly speaking his mind, Walcott takes many controversial positions on a wide range of subjects, such as Caribbean and U.S. politics, literary instruction in American universities, the proper role of sound in modern poetry, and the "ego" apparent in contemporary American poetry, and problems of race. Whatever the subject, Walcott responds fully and candidly. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Walcott's Omeros
Omeros! A treat for the lover of language.Much has been and will bewritten ofthis literary challenge : plot, characters, and segueing epic; but little will ever do justice to the heart of the matter,- ( which demands thisconscious encomium.)

What for Habermas is the ideal of communicative actionis celebratedin Walcott as the action of poetic communication. Walcott paints.

On every page, heoffers the reader a life time of disciplined observation - the fruit of whichhe dispenses with prodigal largesse.

This humble,almost unconsciousmaster of metaphor is able to enterunerringly intothe consciousness of things and to emerge from that dive with pearls,whose inner flower-flames he unfurls or explodesin liquid light for the benefit of all.

One wishes that Omeros hadremained faithful to its native soil - the simple wisdom of Aristotelianunity. The manifold may well betoo vast and seems to dilute the poetic distillation. (Though the genre itself andWalcott's coupledethnicityexculpate,one still wishes ...etc.)

The work is all done in and as an act of love; still, a brochetting irk pensiles in the mind :
How can a love so in love with its art and the art of its art be anything but artful.

Anticipating the critics who- like he says elsewhere- would spaniel after him like an old stag tohang their theseson the exclamationsof his antlers, Walcott may well have an answer to this and other squibs. Hisarrowing sea-swift Omeros veers andscales with extra territorial sui generis facticity.

The rich pyrotechnics of his fractaling passion,is,like a flung star,a challenge to young energetic poets like Colin Carberry of Ireland , Kendel Hippolyte andMc.DonaldDixon from the Islands.

Omeros should hold a prominent place on everybookshelf. ... Read more

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Paula Burnett offers a new interpretation of the life's work of acclaimed St. Lucian poet, playwright, and Nobel Prize winner Derek Walcott. Often regarded as the radical voice of the Third World, his drama and poetry together form a coherent project designed to create a legacy for modern Caribbean society. Illuminating his ideology and the technique that informs his writing, Burnett discusses his unique approach to myth, identity, and aesthetics. ... Read more

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In this book, Dante, Seamus Heaney and Derek Walcott engage in an eloquent and meaningful conversation. Dante’s capacity for being faithful to the collective historical experience and true to the recognitions of the emerging self, the permanent immediacy of his poetry, the healthy state of his language, which is so close to the object that the two are identified, and his adamant refusal to get lost in the wide and open sea of abstraction – all these are shown to have affected, and to continue to affect, Heaney’s and Walcott’s work. The Flight of the Vernacular, however, is not only a record of what Dante means to the two contemporary poets but also a cogent study of Heaney’s and Walcott’s attitude towards language and of their views on the function of poetry in our time. Heaney’s programmatic endeavour to be “adept at dialect” and Walcott’s idiosyncratic redefinition of the vernacular in poetry as tone rather than as dialect – apart from having Dantean over!tones – are presented as being associated with the belief that poetry is a social reality and that language is a living alphabet bound to the “opened ground” of the world. ... Read more

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Written at Derek Walcott's suggestion, and based on interviews with the playwright, this is the first detailed study of a post-colonial theatre company and the problems of creating "serious" theatre in the former British colonies. The book shows how the Nobel Prize winner strove to create a world class theatre ensemble in the West Indies--a Trinidadian Brecht Berliner ensemble--and traces his life and career in West Indian theatre and the history of the Trinidad Theatre Workshop. A major contribution to West Indian history and theatre, Bruce King's study reveals the heroic will of Derek Walcott, and his determination to prove that West Indian drama was a force with which to be reckoned. ... Read more

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This study offers a meticulous critique of Nobel laureate Derek Walcott's poetry. "Another Life", Walcott's masterpiece of autobiography in verse, has of course been widely praised. D.J. McClatchy, for example, writing in "The New Republic", called it "one of the best long autobiographical poems in English, with the narrative sweep, the lavish layering of details, and the mythic resonance of a certain classic". It is also, though, an ideal point of entry into Walcott's work. The 200 pages of detailed notes and commentary offered in this annotated edition draw to a great extent on unpublished sources to provide a useful resource for both teachers and students. Equally important, the book should enhance the accessibility of Walcott's history and poetry for all readers. ... Read more

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This book explores the common links and differences between the works of two modern Caribbean poets, Kamau Braithwaite and Dereck Walcott. The study focuses on the engagement of the two with the mythology of the Caribbean's African experience, defining each poet's contribution to the development of modern Caribbean poetics. ... Read more

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This book provides a fresh and illuminating approach to the poetry of Derek Walcott by combinging close analysis and interpretation with a perspective that is not restricted to current post-colonial or even Caribbean readings of Walcott's work. In this respect, our volume will be useful for those readers who seek to become familiar with some of the underlying traditions and different types of poetic veins that interact in the poetry of the Caribbean Nobel Prize. ... Read more

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The poetry of Derek Walcott is said to standout from other contemporary American works because of its bold eloquence. This text provides literary criticism from some of the most respected authorities on his poetry. Examined works include "The Theatre of Our Lives."

This title, Derek Walcott, part of Chelsea House Publishers’ Modern Critical Views series, examines the major works of Derek Walcott through full-length critical essays by expert literary critics. In addition, this title features a short biography on Derek Walcott, a chronology of the author’s life, and an introductory essay written by Harold Bloom, Sterling Professor of the Humanities, Yale University. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Major error in product description
I haven't read this book, but Harold Bloom's critique of Walcott would certainly be valuable. What I'm objecting to is that the product description suggests that Walcott is an American author, when he is, in fact, from Trinidad. Although he has spent significant time teaching in the USA, his Caribbean roots are central to his work. Readers should not be misled by such a sloppy error. ... Read more