Close Reading 1
The Sea is History – Derek Walcott
In The Sea is History a poem by Derek Walcott, the voice leads us through monumental moments in the Bible and more recent events is history. How does this poem further shape our understanding of history as we know it? Walcott continuously uses metaphors and commentary to describe and introduce each event. For example from lines 40-42 the author mentions “ the gothic windows” and “ a bald queen” which was a reference to Queen Elizabeth the 1st and the gothic period. At first read this stanza may have been confusing to the reader but with deeper research and examination we can learn more about our history and learn things like there really was a bald queen at one point. I don’t feel that this poem further educated anyone on this history that we already know but what I do believe is that the poems wording and phrasing can be confusing although this seems like a bad thing it heightens the reader’s interest causing them to dig deeper and leans something new on their own. Most of the poem isn’t very literal and what it seems but that’s the way history is, it’s confusing, there are different points of view and it’s not easy to know the whole picture.