Warwick, Ghost of the Father Timeline and Summary

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• The narrator meets the ghost of his father when he returns to the house of his own boyhood.
• Warwick identifies himself and chats about their past life together.
• The pair walks into the street and observes the life of the city—no one can see his father moving through the streets, though.
• Warwick leads his son into a paradise-like park setting, but the narrator never asks about the afterlife.
• Warwick tells the story of his life, including his penchant for good grooming and his love of reading.
• He leads his son down to the harbor and tells him his duty as a poet: to remember the past and the people of the island.
• Warwick reminds him of the strong African women down by the harbor who used to haul heavy baskets of coal on their heads for a penny.
• He insists that it is the narrator's burden as poet to witness the past and cast it into rhyme so that the voiceless shades of his ancestors will not remain silent and forgotten.
• Warwick ends the conversation there because he doesn't want to be late for his appointment with the barber.
• When the narrator visits his elderly mother in a nursing home, she remembers the name of his father and calls him "Nature's gentleman."
• Warwick makes another appearance on the cold beach in Massachusetts.
• His son isn't thrilled to stay and chat because of the weather, but he's struck by the fact that he is now older than his father ever got to be. Technically, he's old enough to be his father's father.
• Warwick tells him that before he returns to St. Lucia, he really needs to do some traveling—only then will he have a proper context for thinking about his island.
• He likens his son to the sea-swift, who journeys in a circular pattern.