Omeros

A poem in five books, of circular narrative design, titled with the Greek name for Homer, which simultaneously charts two currents of history: the visible history charted in events — the tribal losses of the American Indian, the tragedy of African enslavement — and the interior, unwritten epic fashioned from the suffering of the individual in exile.

A poem in five books. The title is the Greek name for Homer, invoked by a Greek girl in exile beginning a long journey home.

A poem in five books, of circular narrative design, titled with the Greek name for Homer, which simultaneously charts two currents of history: the visible history charted in events — the tribal losses of the American Indian, the tragedy of African enslavement — and the interior, unwritten epic fashioned from the suffering of the individual in exile.

Chicago Tribune - G.E. Murray

Unlike many Caribbean writers of his generation, Walcott resisted for a long time the lure of emigration, preferring to help establish a strong Caribbean literary culture from within as both poet and dramatist. As such he is described as "a 20th century man with an Elizabethan sense of language.

Derek Walcott was born in St. Lucia in 1930. His Collected Poems: 1948-1984 was published in 1986; his subsequent works include the book-length poem Omeros (1990), The Bounty (1997), and Tiepolo's Hound (2000), illustrated with the poet's own paintings. He received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1992.