I don't feel I've arrived home until I get on the beach. All my life, the theater of the sea has been a very strong thing.
Derek WalcottRead
My dedication to trying to be a poet started very, very young, and I was very well encouraged by good teachers and by older friends and so on, so I think it is a benediction, and I also think it is a calling, a duty.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote expresses the idea that early encouragement and a sense of duty can inspire someone to pursue their passion for poetry.
Derek Walcott reflects on his early dedication to poetry, crediting the support of teachers and friends who fostered his passion. He views his commitment not just as a personal choice but as a calling and duty, highlighting the significance of community and mentorship in nurturing artistic talent. This suggests that being an artist involves recognizing and fulfilling one's obligations to their craft and to those who inspire them.
Themes
DedicationPoetryEncouragementCallingDuty
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech at a literary gathering to inspire young poets.
More from Derek Walcott
All quotes →Creating a poem is a continual process of re-creating your ignorance, in the sense of not knowing what's coming next.
Derek WalcottRead
A long time ago, I thought, as a writer in the Caribbean, 'I don't ever want to have to write 'It was great in Paris.'' Because I don't think, proportionately speaking, that one's experience in a city as opposed to, say, a village in St. Lucia, is superior to the other.
Derek WalcottRead
My mother was a schoolteacher and very, very encouraging. She understood what it meant when I said I wanted to be a writer; both me and my brother wrote.
Derek WalcottRead
When I went to college - when I read Shakespeare or Dickens or Scott - I just felt that, as a citizen of England, a British citizen, this was as much my heritage as any schoolboy's. That is one of the things the Empire taught, that apart from citizenship, the synonymous inheritance of the citizenship was the literature.
Derek WalcottRead
The truest writers are those who see language not as a linguistic process but as a living element.
Derek WalcottRead
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