A City's Death By Fire Poem Analysis

Lisa Hansen

Professor Phillips

Final Paper

5/16/2014

Analysis of Derek Walcott’s Poetry:

Poetry in essence is a written artistic form of expression. It allows for writers to reveal their ideas and feelings in a very unique way. Wallace Stevens once said, “Poetry is a destructive force”. In other words poetry has power, I believe this is a very true statement. Another poet by the name of William Carlos Williams once said, “Poetry is a small (or large) machine made out of words.” I also believe this statement to be true, each aspect of a poem is important to its function as a whole, and if something is missing or changed it can no longer work in the same way. The poet Derek Walcott I believe knew these “rules of poetry” and modeled them in his own writing. For example we can see use of these statements in his poem “A City’s Death By Fire”.

“A City’s Death By Fire” is a powerful poem about a city in ruins after being destroyed by a fire. Someone who appears to have witnessed the tragic destruction is telling the story in the first person, and it is as if we are being walked through the aftermath. The overall tone of this poem is very serious. Making it so the reader can feel what the onlooker is feeling, it is very dark and overwhelmingly sad. However as the poem goes on the tone slowly shifts from morbid to hopeful, and we are given the feeling that resurrection is to come.

Imagery is the dominating force in this poem, and Walcott creates these strong images to describe what the town now looks like. In lines 5 and 6 he says:

“All day I walked abroad among the rubbled tales,

Shocked at each wall that stood on the street like a liar;”

He appears to be in disbelief at what he sees; the place he once called home is now ...

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...o paint a clear picture through the structure of his poem, his specific word choice, and the tone he creates. And each of his poems is unique in the way it makes you feel when you experience it. “A city’s Death By Fire” is a very good example of a Walcott poem that can paint a picture. It has the ability to place you among the debris that was once a town; it makes you feel as though you lost everything in this tragedy. But it also makes you feel as if there is hope of rebuilding and that time can heal. I believe this poem is a destructive force; it is powerful and can evoke strong images and feelings. I also believe this poem is a machine made out of words, each one equally important in making the whole thing work in the way it is meant to. That is what makes poetry so unique; it can be numerous things all at once, and it’s relatable even if it’s foreign.