LITERARY APPRECIATION OF ‘PARADES, PARADES’ BY DEREK WALCOTT

Background of the poet:
Derek Walcott hailed from the island of Saint Lucia, a former British colony in the West Indies, and sustained a good taste for literature right from childhood, which is evident in his attempt, at fourteen, to publish his first poem in a local newspaper. He has a number of collections of poetry to his credit like Green Night and has won a number of awards like Nobel Prize Awards. As a renowned playwright, he has also bagged some other awards like Obie Award for his play Dream on Monkey Mountain. Oftentimes, a poet is a griot of his people; he is their spokesperson who fetches from the past experiences in order to throw more light on the present and join pieces to create and make conclusions about the future. Walcott has taken on this duty and used many of his poems to invite the past through visual imagery and natural symbolization with a view to explore, in order to educate, the colonial as well as post-colonial experiences in his homeland. For this reason, we always find him discussing political power, language, place and government, etc. in his literary works.

PARADES, PARADES
An overview of the poem:
The poem starts by juxtaposing natural elements like the desert, the sky and the ocean joined together by a parallel margin to show monotonousness and unvarying habit. It draws further in the subsequent lines to paint the politicians like the tedious parallel lines made by jet or ships at sea. The atmosphere changes to Independence Ceremony where the citizens sing ‘calypso’ to the ‘brazen joy of the tubas’. With a rhetorical question, the poet persona contemplates the appearance of the ‘beautiful and unmarked children in the uniform of the country’ who look bewildered and shy. In the second stanza, the poet contemplates whether their colonial experience is even better than their self-rule. They wait for things to change but things remain how they were or even worse. The poet concludes by making mockery of the situation; leaving the reader with the discretion as to what name can suit the facial expression of the electorates who wait for the politicians to address them, expectant that there might have been a change which they have for long been anticipating.

STANZA BY STANZA ANALYSIS

Stanza one:
The poet starts by outstretching a mat of visual imagery of the desert, negating any human movement on it except the politicians in the ‘old caravan’. The recurrent adjective, old, here indicates a repetitive practice in an unvarying way. The third line introduces the ‘image’ of the ocean on which the keels of ships incise the same ‘old’ parallel lines and also by the metaphoric use of the ‘blue sea’ the poet paints the skyline in which jet trails draw also the same lines. This only introduces us to the caricatural picture of the politicians who plod their way without imagination, circling the same sombre gardens. The garden symbolizes the country and its fountain are the people or citizens. They are likened to palms or some plants that dry in the forecourt. However, though the people are ‘desiccating’ or becoming more impoverished, the same line rules Whitepaper and the same steps ascend the Whitehall. Nothing changes except the name of the ‘fool’. The ‘fool’ here refers to the politicians whose conduct of governance is always the same, despite the change of administration. This background brings us to the Independence Day when the innocent youths in the uniform of the country sing calypsos and make parades to honour the occasion. However, two questions engross our attention to the fact that, in spite of the ceremonies of this historic day, the citizens are bewildered and shy, full of terror of the pride drummed into their heads which, as they know, is ironic. In essence, what this stanza tries to establish is the shameful fact that the politicians lack vision, leadership skills, and therefore fail to improve the life of their citizens even after several years of self-rule. The citizens are seen to be anticipating from one Independence Day ceremony to another, singing parade songs but still bent down by the consciousness that their attainment of independence is more or less absurd.

Stanza two:
The last stanza in the same derogatory way pursues the subject matter farther; by seeking to answer the afore-raised questions. In another set of rhetorical questions, the poet suggests that it may be that the old songs before independence were truer than the ones they are singing now. He drifts from an objective general presentation of views and experience to a subjective personal account. This is to present a potential witness to the reader who might not have been exposed to the experience of the poet. He accounts how they ‘wait for the change of statues’ as an emerging independent people to celebrate their heroes, and new autochthonous parades as against the one imposed on them by the former colonial power. They hail their politicians who address them in the public gathering, expecting that better changes will result from their own self-government, but nothing seems ever to ensue. The words; waddling seals of his cabinet, trundling up to the dais, suggest heavy motion and therefore interpretively indicate the laziness and irresponsible nature of their government. The poet concludes by two sarcastic rhetorical questions; whether that silence of the citizens can be named ‘respect’ or ‘awe’ or those circling horns the dawn of a ‘new world’. The poet tries to engage his audience directly by addressing the questions to and demanding them to interpret the look of the electorate which is enough an indication of disillusionment ang disappointment. In a bitter sarcasm, he goes further to ask the audience how it all happened, and why the poet persona said nothing. The last line shows that he already knows the answer to the aforementioned question and is only keeping silent because the answer is not desirable. The poem is a political satire which seeks to scoff off the parochial nature of the corrupt politicians who instead of promoting the interest of the electorate, loot and squander the public treasury without imagination. All of them are depicted the same and nothing changes except the name of the fool.
Poetic devices:

Poetic devices are those figures of speech or tropes used by poets to convey meaning beyond ordinary sense of the words. In other words, figurative language is a departure from the denotative to connotative meaning of words. By the help of these devices, poets bewitch their audience or readers and compel them to reflect on the clear image etched in the words they read. The poem under consideration is enriched with these tropes and, in the following, we are going to point out some of them.

IMAGERY
This is a figure of speech by which the poet seeks to create a mental picture in the minds of his readers through words. In the poem, Parades, Parades, the poet uses imagery in the ‘wide desert…oceans but the keels incise’, the image of ‘blue sea’, ‘jet trails’ and others.  By drawing a comparative line between the already clear image of the Natural environment and the politicians, the image is even clearer and more exact.

ENJAMBMENT
At times, a line of poetry may not convey its whole meaning but in conjunction with the subsequent lines. This is referred to as enjambment and we can see it in line 1-2 and throughout the remaining lines in the first stanza.

SYMBOLISM
Symbol is a common feature of human understanding. An object, whether concrete or abstract, may be used to substitute a phenomenon, idea or concept, by embodying the characteristic quality of the symbolized object. Sombre gardens represent the country or public offices where the ‘dull’ politicians keep rotating aimlessly and without development. The ‘fountain dry in the forecourt’ represents the exploited citizens who are suffering from severe poverty and impoverished lifestyle.

METAPHOR
When two different things are directly simulated to each other, the figure of speech used here is called metaphor; e.g. saying: Ali is a lion. This abounds in the poem. For example, blue sea above the mountains, etc.

PERSONIFICATION
Endowing human attributes on an inanimate object is known as personification. There are many instances of personification in the poem, some of which are; the law lived far away, the same lines rule the whitepapers, the same steps ascend the Whitehall, etc.  There are many other figures of speech extractable from the poem, but because of time limit only the few above have been made mention of.

STYLE/DICTION
 The poem is written in free verse, without specific rhyme scheme. It is in two stanzas of unequal length and the language of the poem is slightly complicated in the sense that words have been manipulated by the poet to create mental images. But the key words that seem to carry more weight of signification are; the adjective old, Whitepapers and Whitehall, the politicians plod without imagination, etc. The poem also is woven through recurring rhetorical questions which help to develop the satiric tone of the poem per se.

THEME
The poem is a political satire which mocks the unfitness of the political leaders who barely make any effort to develop their nation even after several years of independence. The poet goes further to depict how they exploit and oppress their citizens by looting and plundering the public treasury. Corruption is also shown as the bane of the country. The politicians circle the same sombre gardens with its fountain dry in the forecourt sit at ease repeating the same thing all the time, ignorant of the suffering of their citizens and the deficit they are creating in the national economy. Lack of political accountability and the defiance of the people’s expectation are all treated in the poem. With a note of sorrow, the poet persona turns to the reader for explanation; that after all the poet has said, the reader is left to judge why it all happened and why he kept silent. Was it suppression, insensitivity, fear or cowardice? This is a question the reader has to conjure an answer to, from what has gone on in the poem.

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Writers are the voice of their people and are definitely shaped and influenced by their personal experiences. Their writings therefore are like a mirror in which those experiences reflect. Hardly can there be a writer who strips himself from his personal as well as collective experiences. In the poem, Parades Parades by Derek Walcott, it can be said that the poet, who was a prime witness of what had happened before and after independence in his country of Saint Lucia, appreciates the beauty of the natural environment where he grew up and gives it another layer of meaning which conveys the notion that the same way things in the natural environment keep unchanged, the same way the politicians. However, the point of difference is that the latter stick to the bad ways. Themes that have been explored in the poem include corruption, incompetence, disillusionment and the foolishness of the political scene. The style of the poem employs recurrent rhetorical questions, imagery and symbolism that help to drive home the thematic presentation of the poem. Lastly, the poem is a masterpiece of departure from ordinary sense of the words, sentences and phrases.