Ruins of a Great House

The ruins of the great house are a symbol of both colonialism and the canon of English literature. The poem establishes the metaphor for the Great House as a body in the first stanza (“Stones only, the disjecta membra of this Great House,” Line 1). Walcott suggests that the house is like a dismembered human corpse, its limbs strewn across the lawn. This violent imagery suggests how colonialism inflicted trauma and abuse on those it colonized. But ironically, in attempting to subjugate others, these great colonial powers eventually lost control. Bits and pieces of their once-great empire were scattered across the globe like the stones of the great house strewn across the lawn.

On a more personal level for the speaker, the estate is a symbol of the legacy of English literature. On one hand, England was a destructive colonial presence in the Caribbean. On the other, England and English speakers created a canon of literature that deeply impacted how the speaker interprets the world. Thus, ultimately, the great house in shambles becomes both a sign of victory and defeat for the speaker: The colonizers have been removed from the Caribbean, but their cultural impact on the landscape—and its people—has left a permanent mark.