How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Section.Page)
Quote #4
A gull/screeched whirling backwards, and it was the tribal/sorrow that Philoctete could not drown in alcohol./It was not forgetful as the sea-mist or the crash/of breakers on the crisp beaches of Senegal/or the Guinea coast. (XXIV.ii.129)
The legacy of slavery is everywhere in this poem, perceived even in the natural beauty of the island and the sea. Here, Achille is entering his sun-induced delirium and beginning to reflect on his identity. There's also the recurring image of the sea as a great geographical and historical continuum, linking St. Lucia to a troubling ancestral past. For more on this, check out the "Symbolism, Imagery, Allegory" section.
Quote #5
And Achille felt the homesick shame/and pain of his Africa. His heart and his bare head/were bursting as he tried to remember the name/of the river- and the tree-god in which he steered,/whose hollow body carried him to the settlement ahead. (XXV.i.134)
Walcott thinks a lot about racial memory, and both Achille and Ma Kilman struggle hard with a loss of knowledge that should be a part of their DNA. When it doesn't work out that way, the characters feel guilty—like they are betraying themselves and their ancestors.
Quote #6
Half of me was with him. One half with the midshipman/by a Dutch canal. But now, neither was happier/or unhappier than the other. (XXV.ii.135)
Walcott refers to his dual racial identity in these lines, through the characters of Achille and Midshipman Plunkett. As he moves through the narrative, Walcott repeatedly identifies himself with characters on both sides of the "meridian" and tells us that he means to "stitch together" the two hemispheres in his work.