Omeros by Derek Walcott (Overview)

The poem very loosely echoes and references Homer and some of his major characters from the Iliad. Some of the poem’s major characters include the island fishermen Achille and Hector, the retired English officer Major Plunkett and his wife Maud, the housemaid Helen, the blind man Seven Seas (who symbolically represents Homer), and the author himself. Although the main narrative of the poem takes place on the island of St. Lucia, where Walcott was born and raised, Walcott also includes scenes from Brookline, Massachusetts (where Walcott was living and teaching at the time of the poem’s composition) and the character Achille imagines a voyage from Africa onto a slave ship that’s headed for the Americas; also, in Book Five of the poem, Walcott narrates some of his travel experiences in a variety of cities around the world, including Lisbon, London, Dublin, Rome, and Toronto. The island of Saint Lucia was historically known as “the Helen of the West Indies“ during the 18th century bec