Derek Walcott's 'XIV'

How do people know what they are meant to do for the rest of their lives? For some, their inspiration may be more discreet; they might not be aware of what they want to be, yet. For others, their inspiration may be the things that push them to dream and create. Derek Walcott, in the poem “XIV” from Midsummer, illustrates the feeling of being inspired to do something for the rest of his life. He describes his experience when he first meeting an elderly storyteller, and how it had impacted his life. That experience had led him to want to be a writer and a storyteller, just like the elderly woman. To demonstrate the impact of that experience he used literary devices such as an analogies, personification, and anaphoras. Walcott begins by using an analogy in order to point out the importance of the beginning of his journey to him discovering his inspiration and calling. On his way to the old woman’s home, Walcott encounters a “speckled road” that twisted with “the frenzy of an old snake shedding its skin”(Walcott 1). Walcott compares the
When Walcott explains how there is “childhood, and there’s childhoods aftermath“ childhood is repeated at the beginning(Walcott 12). When Walcott first met the elderly woman he was in his “childhood,” he was still learning and trying to find himself. After he had met her, he experienced a “childhood’s aftermath” which had a great impact on who he became. Childhood is a time of learning and exploring. It is one of the most important periods of a person's life because it has a large impact on an individual and who they are going to be. It is a time where people find themselves and becomes their own individual. Once a child has reached adulthood, they keep many of the lessons and things they learned as a child. This affects their decisions and what they strive to do. In Walcott's case, he was inspired to be just like the elderly woman he had