How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Section.Page)
Quote #1
This wound I have stitched into Plunkett's character./He has to be wounded, affliction is one theme/of this work, this fiction, since every "I" is a/fiction finally. (V.ii.28)
Just in case you are tired of searching for themes in literary works, Walcott helps you out on this one. Note also his provocative concept of the first person narrator as always fictional. It's something to consider when you're thinking about the autobiographical nature of this narrative.
Quote #2
And I heard a hollow moan exhaled from a vase,/not for kings floundering in lances of rain; the prose/of abrupt fishermen cursing over canoes (II.iii.15)
The narrator hears the call of epic poetry as he's learning Homer's true name from his ex-girlfriend. But it's clear that although his inspiration has roots in the ancient past, he will re-purpose the elements of epic poetry to fashion a narrative from his own experience.
Quote #3
"Because Rhyme remains the parentheses of palms/shielding a candle's tongue, it is the language's/desire to enclose the loved world in its arms; or heft a coal-basket; only by its stages/like those groaning women will you achieve that height/whose wooden planks in couplets lift your pages/higher than those hills of infernal anthracite." (XIII.iii.75)
The narrator's father gets it: Language and poetry are the keepers of culture and memory. He also knows that his son will have to tell the story of their ancestors if he wishes to fulfill his ambition of greatness.