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In White Egrets, Derek Walcott treats his characteristic subjects---the Caribbean's complex colonial legacy, the Western artistic tradition, the blessings and witholdings of old Europe (Andalucia, the Mezzogiorno, Amsterdam), the unaccommodating sublime of the new world, time's cunning passages, the poet's place in all of this---with a passionate intensity and drive that recall his greatest work. With its interlocking repetition of theme and imagery, Walcott's cadence carries from poem to poem, and from sequence to sequence in this celebratory and close-knit collection.
`No poet rivals Walcott in humour, emotional depth, lavish inventiveness in language, or in the ability to express the thoughts of his characters and compel the reader to follow the swift mutations of ideas and images in their minds. His poetry makes us realize that history, all of it, belongs to us.' New York Times
