Derek Walcott: Crusoe’s Journal

Allusion to Classical figure Proteus

Relationship to Classical text The reference to Proteus emphasises that Walcott is alluding to Odysseus through his image of Crusoe, all three being figures who emerge from the sea and shape an identity in response to the new land they find themselves in.

Classical/post-Classical intertexts Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe provides the main point of reference for the poem. Repeated references are also made to Christian missionary and biblical themes, particularly Genesis, and Adam joins the cast of marooned or solitary wanderers which, as well as Crusoe, includes Ben Gunn (of R.L. Stevenson’s Treasure Island) and Christofer (Columbus) (D. Defoe, Robinson Crusoe (London: W. Taylor, 1719); R. L. Stevenson, Treasure Island (London: Cassell & Co., 1883).

Further Comment Walcott’s cast of wanderers represent the lone figure of the poet, bestowing ‘the Word to savages’.