Derek Walcott: The Divided Child, Chapter 3

Length / Form Stanzas are headed by the names of island characters, ascending alphabetically from Ajax to Zandoli.

Allusion to Classical figure Demeter, Ajax, Cassandra, Homer, Odysseus, Helen, Itys, Philomela, Jason, Laocoön, Midas, Nessus.

Allusion to Classical place Troy, Pompeii

Relationship to Classical text Characters from classical myth are subsumed within a Caribbean cast of mock-epic characters. Allusions to specific texts are minimal, though the Iliad, Odyssey, Vergil’s Aeneid and Ovid’s Metamorphoses seem to be the main sources.

Close translation of words/phrases/excerpts

Classical/post-Classical intertexts Greek enters the poem via the kyrie of the Christian liturgy (i.e. kyrie eleison), sung by a choir of blackbirds.

Further Comment The poem is a child’s alphabet of mytho-poetic characters, plucked from Walcott’s native home, rather than Classical mythology and epic.