Omeros Themes

A big part of Omeros's work is exploring the role of memory in culture, personal lives, and literary efforts. Every major character has to deal with the movement of time and the consequences of pas...

It's telling that Omeros begins with Philoctete, the character who is pain. After all, suffering infuses this poem like the pain that radiates from his wound. Depending on the characters, wounds ma...

In Omeros, though the characters in the present timeline haven't experienced slavery directly, they live with the memories of their ancestors and a legacy of poverty, both spiritually and economica...

Helen is the poster child for pride in Omeros, though she's not the only character to grapple with its fallout. Her rare beauty isolates her from everyone on the island. We have to understand that...

It's not often that we get a poet so transparent in his writing process as Walcott, or so willing to interact with his characters on the page as he develops them. But before we start writing Walcot...

Walcott's exploration of racial identity in Omeros comes from a deeply personal place, producing a nuanced view of the struggles his characters encounter in their daily lives. The narrator himself...

As a poet, Walcott is completely obsessed with language and sound, even when uttered by non-human speakers. That's right: Communicating through language is not limited only to poets and fishermen....

Walcott's descriptions of his beloved St. Lucia in Omeros reminds us of Shakespeare's Caliban and his blissful speeches about his own island. Both Walcott and Caliban praise the beauty and gentlene...

If we're going to talk about love in Omeros, we can't get around the Helens. Achille and Hector battle it out over Helen the beautiful, but at the heart of all desire is the other Helen: St. Lucia....

Here's a fun fact about hatred: It's often less complex than love. It comes from some primal place inside us, and while we can get all philosophical about our reasons for hating, our responses are...