The Story Archive

The Prodigal

Derek Walcott · 2004 CE · Poem · Caribbean · Contemporary

An ageing poet travels between European cities and the island of his birth, and the long poem tracks his thoughts on exile, the body, and what home still holds. Its title casts him as a returning son and the voice moves loosely between observation and address. It is a late book-length meditation by the Saint Lucian Nobel laureate.

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