Seamus Perry and Mark Ford discuss the life and work of the Saint Lucian Nobel laureate Derek Walcott, the island poet and playwright surrounded by an oceanic consciousness, whose writing recognises at once the terrible gulfs between peoples and our common predicament.

To listen to series one of Modern-ish Poets and all our other Close Readings series, sign up here:

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Series one of Modern-ish Poets looks at Philip Larkin, W. H. Auden, Elizabeth Bishop, Thomas Hardy, Stevie Smith, A. E. Housman, Wallace Stevens, Sylvia Plath, Seamus Heaney and Robert Lowell.

This episode was first published on the LRB Podcast in March 2021.

Further reading on and by Walcott in the LRB:

'Militia' by Derek Walcott: https://lrb.me/walcottmilitiapod

Ian Sansom: https://lrb.me/sansomwalcottpod

Nicholas Everett: https://lrb.me/everettwalcottpod

Stephen Brook: https://lrb.me/brookwalcottpod

Blake Morrison: https://lrb.me/morrisonwalcottpod

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Modern-ish Poets Series 2: Derek Walcott