{"id":256,"date":"2013-09-16T18:49:25","date_gmt":"2013-09-16T18:49:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/masplayhouse.com\/blog\/?p=256"},"modified":"2013-09-16T18:49:25","modified_gmt":"2013-09-16T18:49:25","slug":"derek-walcott-poetry-a-far-cry-from-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/masplayhouse.com\/blog\/2013\/09\/derek-walcott-poetry-a-far-cry-from-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"Derek Walcott Poetry: A Far Cry from Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>\u00a0A\u00a0Far Cry From Africa<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>By Derek Walcott, Nobel Literature Laureate, Saint Lucia, West Indies.<\/p>\n<p>A wind is ruffling the tawny pelt<br \/>\nOf Africa, Kikuyu, quick as flies,<br \/>\nBatten upon the bloodstreams of the veldt.<br \/>\nCorpses are scattered through a paradise.<br \/>\nOnly the worm, colonel of carrion, cries:<br \/>\n\u2019Waste no compassion on these separate dead!\u2019<br \/>\nStatistics justify and scholars seize<br \/>\nThe salients of colonial policy.<br \/>\nWhat is that to the white child hacked in bed?<br \/>\nTo savages, expendable as Jews?<!--more--><br \/>\nThreshed out by beaters, the long rushes break<br \/>\nIn a white dust of ibises whose cries<br \/>\nHave wheeled since civilizations dawn<br \/>\nFrom the parched river or beast-teeming plain.<br \/>\nThe violence of beast on beast is read<br \/>\nAs natural law, but upright man<br \/>\nSeeks his divinity by inflicting pain.<br \/>\nDelirious as these worried beasts, his wars<br \/>\nDance to the tightened carcass of a drum,<br \/>\nWhile he calls courage still that native dread<br \/>\nOf the white peace contracted by the dead.<\/p>\n<p>Again brutish necessity wipes its hands<br \/>\nUpon the napkin of a dirty cause, again<br \/>\nA waste of our compassion, as with Spain,<br \/>\nThe gorilla wrestles with the superman.<br \/>\nI who am poisoned with the blood of both,<br \/>\nWhere shall I turn, divided to the vein?<br \/>\nI who have cursed<br \/>\nThe drunken officer of British rule, how choose<br \/>\nBetween this Africa and the English tongue I love?<br \/>\nBetray them both, or give back what they give?<br \/>\nHow can I face such slaughter and be cool?<br \/>\nHow can I turn from Africa and live?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u00a0A\u00a0Far Cry From Africa By Derek Walcott, Nobel Literature Laureate, Saint Lucia, West Indies. A wind is ruffling the tawny pelt Of Africa, Kikuyu, quick as flies, Batten upon the bloodstreams of the veldt. Corpses are scattered through a paradise. Only the worm, colonel of carrion, cries: \u2019Waste no compassion on these separate dead!\u2019 Statistics justify and scholars seize The salients of colonial policy. What is that to the white child hacked in bed? To savages, expendable as Jews?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[42],"class_list":["post-256","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-playwrights-of-the-week","tag-derek-walcott"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Derek Walcott Poetry: A Far Cry from Africa - MA&#039;s Playhouse<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/masplayhouse.com\/blog\/2013\/09\/derek-walcott-poetry-a-far-cry-from-africa\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Derek Walcott Poetry: A Far Cry from Africa - MA&#039;s Playhouse\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"\u00a0A\u00a0Far Cry From Africa By Derek Walcott, Nobel Literature Laureate, Saint Lucia, West Indies. A wind is ruffling the tawny pelt Of Africa, Kikuyu, quick as flies, Batten upon the bloodstreams of the veldt. Corpses are scattered through a paradise. Only the worm, colonel of carrion, cries: \u2019Waste no compassion on these separate dead!\u2019 Statistics justify and scholars seize The salients of colonial policy. What is that to the white child hacked in bed? 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