The Wolf and the hare: Epic expansion and contextualization in Derek Walcott'sOmeros

Abstract

Derek Walcott'sOmeros should be read within the horizons of traditional epic, as that genre has been revised by recent scholarship. Lyric elements in the poem exemplify the traditional epic's expansive tendencies vis-a-vis other genres. The development of a vivid image of a bleeding hare in Book Two illustrates assimilation of the metaphoric density of lyric. The image of the hare is expanded into a network of imagery which depicts a theme of the levelling of predators and their prey, and—on the human level—the conflation of winners and losers. The contextualization of this theme within the characterization of Achille contributes to his exemplarity, another traditional epic criterion, and likewise adds to the revision of the epic hero, which further suggestsOmeros as an innovative epic text. That Achille's exemplary qualities derive from traits which the poet finds in his own people relates in turn to the poem's instructional intent and social utility, motives which again one associates with the epic.