Twentieth century poetry was highly influenced by the war, individuals in the home front wrote about their feelings that captured their lives daily, soldiers wrote on the warfront craving a place to escape the harsh reality and many others just wanted their opinion to be heard, but in a less obvious way. The poem written by Derek Walcott, A Far Cry from Africa illustrates the frustration of being apart of two cultures, British and African. The lines "I who am poisoned with the blood of both/Where shall I turn, divided to the vein?" (Walcott, pg 17) illustrates the speakers confusion of his cultural background. It seems that the speaker doesn 't feel like he/she is a true Britain or African. Lines such as "The salients of colonial policy" and "In a white dust of ibises whose cries have wheeled since civilizations dawn" (Walcott, pg 17) could possibly represent Britain 's imperialism on Africa, and their need for Africans to assimilate as a British colony. In addition, we could translate "The gorilla wrestles with the superman" (Walcott, pg 18) into
Bibliography: Auden, W.H. "The Unknown Citizen." Design of Things. D.J Walsh. Canada: McGraw-Hill Ryerson Limited, 2004. 22-23. Walcott, Derek. Collected Poems, 1948-1984. New York: Farrar Straw & Ciroux, 1986.