Schooner_Flight

The Schooner Flight by Walcott is a complex idiom which at it heart concern racial and colonial identity. In the poem Walcott recounts the unflattering ambition of Sabine to escape the societal ills before it “poison his soul”.Shabine the central narrator of the poem gives an objective first person account of his personal frustrations and agonizing dilemma which cause him to assiduous embark on his metaphoric sailor’s journey as a means of escape. Even though the poem seems slight on the surface level, it however, explores some philosophical and historical issues that affect all West Indian People, since we share the common history of colonization. Walcott highlights the ponderous theme of “Journeying” as a means of escape from emotional, societal and psychological tribulations. At the end of the poem Walcott’s Sabine is able to piece together all the elements which contribute to his greater understanding of self. To illuminate his poetic concerns Walcott/Sabine uses the symbol of the sea and a schooner as a medium to petition his poetic platform. Sabine divulges that “when [he] write this poem, each phrase go be soaked in salt; I go draw and knot every line as tight as ropes in this rigging; in simple speech my common language go be the wind. My pages the sails of the schooner flight.” Ostensibly, this depiction effectively draws on his intention of crating his poem in such manner that it gives support and transform people. He intends to let his simple words be like the wind which spreads and refreshes people; he also wants his words to enlighten people. His common language (the local vernacular mixed with standard) must resonate, awakens, transforms and inspires readers. The pages of the poem the sail which is the element that propels the movement just as the schooner is propel by the wind and the sail. Further, the image of sea is also used as a symbol of Sabine’s present instability he faces. Hence, Sabine taking on the persona of a sailor and journeys to escape is only fitting for his own state of disillusion at the moment.Shabine is so gauged up by the ills of society that he journeys to escape before it permeates his entire being. He highlights a society that is largely influenced by political corruption and mixed value system. Out of this political upheavals orchestrated by the “minister monster” Sabine wishes his “soul takes wing.” Sabine satirizes the actions of the minister who smuggles the booze and corrupt police who is supposed to be an upholder of the law, to serve and protect the nation from such fraudulent element of society. To compound the minister’s personality, Sabine uses animal images to expose him in his charade to cover up his true character.Shabine describes him as a “Half Syrian saurian” with “that face thick with powder, the warts, and the stone lids like a dinosaur.”This reptile image gives us the devious and slyness of the minister as he covers his true identity .Further, through the depiction of the minister’s “stone lids like a dinosaur” it adds to the notion of how grueling and tyrannical he truly is. The monstrosity and infectiousness of the corruption is echoed in Sabine’s reference to the “primordial ooze.”As such Sabine distances himself from their carnival of corruption and resolves to “taking a sea bath.” This reference to sea bath alludes that he undergoing a purging; and the fact that he is going to come out clean at the end. As Sabine resolves to be different, he embarks on his metaphoric sailor’s journey on his Schooner Flight through different Caribbean territories. As he journeys he gives voice to the parallel plight of the Caribbean people as he recounts certain crucial aspects of history. The subject of colonialism is one that affects Sabine / Walcott personally with his mixed identity and his upbringing in the colonized island of St. Lucia, an island which was under British Colonialism until 1979. Sabine recounts his personal problems with his ancestry which cause him to feel of displace since he is unable to fully connect with the black West Indian and the Europeans .As a mulatto he straddles the middle ground, hence he divulges that”[ he has]Dutch, nigger,and English in [him] so either he is “a nation or a nobody.” Because of Sabine’s inability to truly belong, he questions Jesus as to “where be (his) place “and harbor' He wants a form foundation that he can call his own since his life is in a state of disenchant. He longs for some sort of stability where he can build a form focus and foundation that frames his life. As Sabine becomes philosophical as he journeys into history. He highlights the parallels fears and struggles of the black slaves and the Dominican caribs. He is baffled by the cruelty of the colonizers and the entire savagery associated with the slave trade. As he recounts the black history he depicts gruesome treatment and condition of the coloured sailors which he parodies to the black slaves. He explicitly states that “I saw men with rusty eyeholes like cannons, and whenever their half-naked crews cross the sun, right through their tissue, you trace their bones like leaves against the sunlight”. This depiction effectively enlightens us on the feeble conditions of the crew members whose ribs can be detected by the naked eyes. He equates this perilous condition to the one the slaves faced as they travel by numbers through the middle passage from West Africa to the Caribbean Islands. Through the use of irony he mocks the cruelty carried out by the colonizers who considered themselves superior and civilized where in fact they are often t barbarians. He ironically states, “Progress is something to ask the caribs about. They killed them by millions, some in war, some by forced labour dying in mines looking for silver, after that niggers; more progress.” “Progress is history’s dirty joke.” Sabine touches on the colonizers twisted logics all in an attempt to gratify their selfish greed. He hints on the fact of how cruel and corrupt the colonizers become in their progress to achieve financial leverage. It is disheartening to believe that the colonizers thought they were helping the natives and the colonized lands while in fact they were destroying them. Sabine becomes selfless, he does not limit himself to his personal struggles only but the collective struggle of us, West Indian people .Through his philosophical deliberations he gains a great insight into self and learns to “bridle the horse of the sea.”Sabine resolves to use his sound colonial education and merge it with his Creole tradition to write his poetic project to revel the societal problems. Sabine admonishes that “all you fate in my hand, ministers, businessman.” He shall “scatter {their} lives like a handful of sand” with his poetry as his ultimate weapon for battle. Never the less, Sabine’s growth is highlighted in his move from dissatisfaction to contentment after his scuffle with his fierce and personal storm. His mind jerks back to his innocent days as child in church celebrating the memories of his ancestors. As he recalls “and that was faith that had fade from a child in the Methodist chapel in chisel street, Castries, when the whale bell sang service and, in hard pews ribbed like the whale, proud with despair, we sang how our race survive the sea’s mew, our history, our peril and now I was ready for what ever death will.” He purges himself and soars above his personal and historical problems. He consoles himself with that collective celebration of his history. The storm causes him to feels the stillness and peace which he was longing for. In contrast to the first section he is now satisfied, “if {his} hand gave voice to one people’s grief. He can now “bless ever town” with their connected history,” and the one small road winding down them like twine to the roofs below”.Shbine no longer weeps for the island he blesses it. Sources