Homecoming Flashcards
(15 cards)
Q1: What is the central theme of Homecoming: Anse La Raye?
A: The emotional and psychological complexity of returning to one’s homeland, and the alienation that can accompany that return.
Q2: What is the significance of the phrase “there are no rites / for those who have returned”?
A: It expresses the speaker’s feeling of disconnection and the lack of welcome or recognition upon returning home, highlighting emotional alienation.
Q3: How does Walcott describe the speaker’s education in the opening lines?
A: He refers to learning about “Helen and the shades / of borrowed ancestors,” pointing to a colonial education focused on classical European culture, disconnected from the speaker’s lived reality.
Q4: What imagery is used to evoke the landscape of Anse La Raye?
A: Walcott uses vivid sensory details like “doomsurge-haunted nights,” “salt-rusted swords,” “rotted leathery sea-grape leaves,” and “seacrabs’ brittle helmets” to convey decay and historical weight.
Q5: How does the speaker feel about being back in the village?
A: The speaker feels like an outsider. Despite it being their home, the children perceive them as a tourist, which reinforces the painful sense of disconnection.
Q6: What does the line “They swarm like flies / round your heart’s sore” convey?
A: It expresses the emotional pain of being alienated from one’s home, with the children’s attention adding to the speaker’s internal wound of displacement.
Q7: What is symbolized by the “infinite, boring, paradisal sea”?
A: The sea represents the paradox of home—it is beautiful and peaceful but also repetitive and stifling, reflecting the speaker’s ambivalence toward returning.
Q8: How does Walcott present the idea of ambition or career in the poem?
A: The speaker once longed only for the purity of home, but now feels disillusioned; declaring oneself a poet here carries no meaning, reflecting a lost idealism.
Q9: What is meant by “there are homecomings without home”?
A: It means that physically returning to one’s homeland doesn’t guarantee a feeling of belonging or emotional connection; the place has changed—or the speaker has.
Q10: How does the poem end, and what tone is evoked?
A: The poem ends with images of dead fishermen playing draughts and a smiling, nodding man. The tone is one of resignation, portraying stasis and a lack of progress or recognition.
Q11: What does the “politician’s ignorant, sweet smile” represent?
A: It symbolizes hollow leadership, broken promises, and the enduring failure of political figures to bring meaningful change to the village.
Q12: How does Walcott use contrast in the poem?
A: He contrasts past and present, foreign and familiar, education and reality, idealism and disappointment to highlight the tensions of exile and return.
Q13: What role does the natural environment play in the poem?
A: Nature mirrors the emotional decay and complexity of the speaker’s experience; it is at once beautiful and deteriorating, familiar yet alien.
Q14: What literary technique dominates Walcott’s style in this poem?
A: Rich sensory imagery and symbolism dominate, used to convey deep emotional and psychological themes without direct exposition.
Q15: What message does Walcott ultimately convey about identity and belonging?
A: That identity is complicated by displacement and time, and that home is not always a place of comfort—it can become unfamiliar, even painful.
