Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

Derek Walcott’s "Elegy" is a haunting meditation on the promises, contradictions, and disillusionment of America, viewed through the lens of its history, its ideals, and the persistent echoes of violence and oppression. The poem traverses the symbolic landscape of America with both reverence and critique, examining its ideals of liberty and freedom alongside the painful realities of conquest, genocide, and racial violence.

The opening line, “Our hammock swung between Americas,” immediately introduces a sense of liminality and division, evoking the geographical and ideological split between North and South America. This hammock, swaying between two lands, represents the tension between the dream of liberty and the harsh realities of political and social turmoil. The speaker expresses a longing for “Liberty,” which has become an elusive concept, personified as something now missed, perhaps lost or corrupted.

Walcott introduces the image of Che Guevara’s "bullet-riddled body" early in the poem, signaling a meditation on revolution and martyrdom. Che, an iconic figure of rebellion against imperialism and capitalism, symbolizes the struggle for a new world, but his death—"the freeborn citizen’s ballot in the head"—reflects the crushing of revolutionary ideals by violence. The paradox of Che’s death is sharpened by the biting irony of the line “everybody wants to go to bed with Miss America.” Here, Walcott critiques the persistent allure of the American dream, even as it is built on oppression. America, personified as a seductive figure, represents a powerful yet flawed ideal that continues to captivate, despite the unfulfilled promises of freedom and equality.

The line “if there’s no bread, let them eat cherry pie” is a clever, bitter twist on Marie Antoinette’s infamous statement, “Let them eat cake.” It reinforces the idea that America’s promise of prosperity is shallow and insufficient for addressing deeper, systemic issues of inequality. Cherry pie, a quintessentially American symbol, becomes a stand-in for superficial comforts that do not address the real hunger for justice and equality.

Walcott then shifts to a more introspective, somber reflection on the disappearance of the "old choice of running, howling, wounded / wolf-deep in her woods." The image of the wounded wolf running through the woods evokes a primal, instinctual response to pain and suffering—a natural, almost feral reaction to the betrayal of ideals. But this choice, this wildness, is no longer available in modern America, where the "white papers snow on / genocide," symbolizing the whitewashing or erasure of the country’s violent history. The poet contrasts public and private pain, suggesting that in America, both are on display but remain unresolved, frozen in place like statues.

The image of “some splintered arrowhead lodged in her brain” is particularly powerful, combining the violence of America’s colonial past with the psychological damage that lingers. The arrowhead, a symbol of the Native American genocide, is embedded in America’s collective consciousness, affecting its every action and decision. It "sets the black singer howling in his bear trap," a reference to the inescapable suffering of Black Americans, caught in a cycle of systemic racism and violence. The "young eyes" of the mad are bright with desperation, while the "old" are "tired" with the weight of sadness that comes from witnessing repeated cycles of oppression.

Walcott weaves literary and historical allusions throughout the poem, as seen in the reference to “lilacs in her dooryards bloom,” which echoes Walt Whitman’s elegy to Abraham Lincoln, "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d". This connection to Whitman, the great American poet of democracy and freedom, adds another layer of irony, as Walcott suggests that these idealistic symbols of America are now tainted by a history of violence and broken promises.

The "cherry orchard’s surf / blinds Washington" invokes images of George Washington, the nation’s founding father, blinded by the romanticized version of America’s agrarian past. The "whispers to the assassin in his furnished room" reference the assassination of political figures who sought to challenge the status quo, such as John F. Kennedy or Martin Luther King Jr., individuals who dared to envision a more just and inclusive America.

In one of the most striking sections of the poem, Walcott envisions “an ideal America” whose “flickering screens” show “the ghosts of the Cheyennes” wandering across the plains. The Cheyenne, one of the many Native American tribes displaced and decimated by westward expansion, become spectral figures in America’s forgotten history. Their "whispering, rag-bound feet" convey the quiet, haunting presence of a people whose culture and existence have been violently erased, now reduced to ghosts on the periphery of American consciousness.

The poem concludes with a depiction of the famous "American Gothic" painting, but Walcott transforms this iconic image of stoic, rural America into something far more grim. The "farm couple" stands “gripping the devil’s pitchfork,” a symbol of the darker forces underpinning American history—greed, violence, and exploitation. They are “Calvin’s saints, waspish, pragmatic, poor,” embodying the stern, unforgiving nature of Puritanical values that have shaped much of America’s national identity. These figures “stare rigidly towards the immortal wheat,” signifying a fixation on an idealized version of the American dream, while ignoring the grim realities of the present.

In "Elegy", Walcott masterfully blends personal reflection with biting social and political commentary, exploring the chasm between America’s lofty ideals and its violent, oppressive history. Through vivid imagery and historical allusion, the poem reveals the painful contradictions inherent in the American experience, ultimately suggesting that the dream of America is forever haunted by the ghosts of those it has oppressed and betrayed.

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