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 past actions. This sort of living past is hard on the reader, too; the fluid movement between present actions and past events gives us literary whiplash. In one moment, Helen walks down the beach, swinging her plastic sandals, and in the next, Greek Helen moves through the slaughter on the shores of Troy. It's a doozy sometimes.
That said, the coming together of past and present, while spiritual and poetic, also has real power that can physically destroy—or heal—a new generation.
Questions About Memory and the Past
- Walcott uses the term "a white memory" (XXIV.ii.129) to refer to the memory of Midshipman Plunkett's drowned body under Achille's boat. In what ways is the thinking about and representation of the past in this poem a "black memory" or "white memory"?
- What poetic devices does Walcott employ in this poem to address the concepts of time and memory?
- What kinds of memory are active in this poem? Personal? Collective? Political?
- What is the relationship between poetry and the movement of time in this poem?
Chew on This
Walcott claims that "Art is history's nostalgia," which implies that art is not as accurate as history when it comes to the transmission of memory.
Epic memory allows Walcott to stitch up the "Atlantic rift" without privileging one cultural narrative over another.