QuoteProject
The poet complains or points out the discontent that lies at the heart of man, the individual man, and how can that be redeemed?
Derek Walcott
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

The quote highlights the struggles and dissatisfaction inherent in the human experience and questions how these feelings can be transformed.

Derek Walcott's quote reflects on the deep-seated discontent that individuals often experience, expressing a common theme in poetry and artβ€” the exploration of human emotions and struggles. It probes the question of redemption, suggesting that the very act of addressing one's discontent through artistic expression may lead to understanding and healing. This points to the role of the poet or artist as a seeker of deeper truths about the human condition, offering a voice to the challenges we face.

Themes

Human ConditionDiscontentRedemptionPoetryEmotions

In practice

Example use cases

In a literary discussion on the role of poets in society.

More from Derek Walcott

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
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

Similar quotes

I learned not to care ... and to write for an imaginary reader whose tastes were similar to my own.
Terry SouthernRead
I would never want to live anywhere but Baltimore. You can look far and wide, but you'll never discover a stranger city with such extreme style. It's as if every eccentric in the South decided to move north, ran out of gas in Baltimore, and decided to stay.
John WatersRead
We understand … that what constitutes the dignity of a craft is that it creates a fellowship, that it binds men together and fashions for them a common language.
Antoine De Saint-ExuperyRead
Little events, ordinary things, smashed and reconstituted. Suddenly, they become the bleached bones of a story.
Arundhati RoyRead
As a viewer, the minute I start getting confused, I check out of the movie. Emotionally, I'm severed.
Quentin TarantinoRead
In my limited experience, shows are like children. You can teach them manners and dress them in little sailor suits, but in the end, they're going to be who they're going to be.
Tina FeyRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.