How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Section.Page)
Quote #10
That comfortable,/common, familiar apparition of my death/spoke my own language, the one for which I had died,/his cracked soles braced against the rib of the gunwale,/not the marble tongue of the bust I sat beside,/and what was dying but the shadow of a sail/crossing this page or her face? (LVII.ii.287)
Walcott reiterates the importance of a home language as he sets off on his death-journey with Seven Seas/Omeros. While his literary self might prefer a poet to guide him, his true identity demands a guide that can talk the talk. Note also that he claims to have died for his language. The big question: What is his language? Poetry or patois?