To Return To The Trees

Derek Walcott’s “To Return to the Trees” (1972) draws on Western literary and mythic traditions; on cultural, historical, and geographic features from his home in the West Indies; and on images from nature to explore ideas about aging, creativity, and immortality. The poem’s speaker envisions other poetic narratives across history reflected in the changing light of sunrise, in the gnarled forms of old trees, and in his own experience of language and interaction. The speaker looks forward to the nobility inherent in old age as he also contemplates the erosion of his own language. Through this speaker, Walcott speculates on the method and means of personal and cultural exchange, the future fragmentation and loss of language, and the universal desire to connect. The poem encompasses the parts of art and wisdom that persist beyond language, looking for the elements left after time erases memory.

Poet Biography

Born in 1930 on the Caribbean island of St. Lucia, Derek Walcott began publishing poems at the age of 14, going on to earn global acclaim for his work, including the Nobel Prize in 1992. His devout Methodism, his West Indian home, and his interest in classical and modern Western traditions all bring

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