English Literature

Given below is a brief yet precise commentary on the section Shabine Encounters the Middle Passage from the poem The Schooner Flight, written by Derek Walcott and published under the anthology of poems called Star-Apple Kingdom. The poem is specifically about how the protagonist, Shabine, a West-Indian mulatto plans to escape this world on a flight of fantasy through poetry and an account of visions and apparitions marking the grim and the joyous realities that dot the life. In this particular section, that is Shabine Encounters the Middle Passage, the reminiscent of the colonial history and the wars between France and England of which the Caribbean territory was an unfortunate part came down hauntingly, but Shabine took a rather cynical stand on them. Moreover, Shabine represents the poet, Derek Walcott, and thus the poem is to an extent autobiographical in nature or we can say a sojourn of the poets attempts to flee the world of reality on the wings of poetry, under the effect of alcohol.

Till before this section, Shabine had expressed his desire to forsake everything and flee. He also recalled his lady love and the relationship they shared and the things that went wrong between them. After leaving the turmoil of personal life, and the corruption of public life, he finally found calm in the peace of dawn, under the starry sky when on a beach bare of all but light, dark hands start pulling in the seine, of the dark sea, deep, deep inland.(Blesin, 2001, p.203)

But his peace was short lived as the memories of his past come in fleets to haunt him, to trouble him and to make his departure a difficult one. Shabine immediately encounters the first of several reminders of his personal and historical past. However much he wishes to flee from history, history rises before him to bar his path. (Blesin, 2001, p.203). It rises as a coil of fog rises from the sea and as it clears, Shabine could see fleet of almost hundred to thousand ships approach the galley from the end where the horizon was one silver haze, (Brown  Walcott, 1993, p.54) and as the fog cleared he could see the enormous fleet of ships approaching him. In these lines, the figure of speech used is similie as the fog on the horizon is compared to the looming troubles.

The fog swirls and swells into sails, and rows of majestic ships would come into the view. These ships had lots of Shabines, of black as well as white skin colour with only half portion of the body dressed and rest half exposed to the elements. These Shabines were sickly, with the eyes like cannon and bodies so lean that one could count the number of bones in the part particular part of their skeleton, if it came to be under suns shadow, just as one can see the number of leaves in a forest. The poet makes an intelligent use of imagery to get across the plight of these Shabines. I saw men with rusty eyeholes like cannons, And whenever their half-naked crews cross the sun, Right through their tissue, you traced their bones Like leaves against the sunlight frigates, barkentines. (Brown  Walcott, 1993, p.54) These are the ones working on the oars as if the backward-moving current swept them on, and the merciless and powerful generals and admirals, the likes of Rodney, Nelson, De Grasse who order them about hoarsely, can be seen. In no moment the forest of masts sail right through the Flight, and all you could hear was the ghostly sound of waves rustling like grass in a low wind and the hissing weds they trail from the stern can be seen on the deck of these ships.  (Brown  Walcott, 1993, p.54)

The whole scene, the ghastly haunting apparition went through the Apparent Flight of the poet and for a moment, the reality and the history of his life faced him in the eye and held him.  They heaved past from east to west (Brown  Walcott, 1993, p.54) and the poet realized that the life is nothing but a cranked water wheel and the parts and portions of it keep coming back at regular intervals like a bucket in a wheel does to fill the sea of life or even take from it.

He pondered long enough on the apparition, on the times when colonization was done at a massive scale by the people of England and France, but as it came, so it went, that is before he could realize anything then the sun Heat the horizons ring and they was mist. (Brown  Walcott, 1993, p.54)

He also sees the vessels of slaves passing by, linked to the fleet of the Admirals ships. In older days, natives of Caribbean and Indian colonies were enslaved by the British, French and the Dutch and this says that only. There was no developed nation of that time that made an exception to this practice of slavery and amongst those slaves there could be our fathers below deck too deep, I suppose, To hear us shouting. So we stop shouting. Who knows Who his grandfather is, much less his name (Brown  Walcott, 1993, p.54)

The poet has made a profound use of imagery, similes and metaphors to create a scene from colonial times when exploitation of the Shabines was a norm. He also gives the universal truth that no matter how much a man may try to escape his present, but his past will continue to visit him, in places and in forms which are unimaginable. It is an inseparable part of ones existence.

Conclusion

The poem Shabine Encounters the Middle Passage brings out the history of colonial times in which Shabine, the poet, grew up and also highlights the skill of Derek Walcott at writing poems and creating state-of-the-art imageries. The Shabine is no doubt horrified by the apparitions from the past, but he still goes on to describe them with an unparalleled calmness and precision, underscored by a bit of cynicism. There is a good use of alliteration at certain places which gives somewhat a rhyming pattern to the otherwise free style verse followed by the poet.