Derek Walcott: 2003

1992 Nobel Prize winner Derek Walcott reads passages from his then-unpublished book-length poem, "The Prodigal." Of it, he explains: "I think the book is about another kind of colonization— of the intellect, and maybe even of the soul— colonization that came from visiting Europe. For a long time, I refused the seduction of Europe. Because of its history, and because of the the pride Europe took in its culture and the obscenity of its history. But I have been going often, and in spite of furious attempts to resist that seduction, I am falling for it." This was Walcott's first public reading from "The Prodigal." A passage from it echoes the title of the Seminar that year, borrowed from Richard Wilbur's 1947 poem, "The Beautiful Changes:" the beautiful changes of rain in which the hills faded into cloud and the hulls of the yacht seemed anchored in a field of fast flowers. (50:26)

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