This week, I wanted to focus more on the poem, “The Sea is History”, by Dereck Walcott. This is by far one of the most interesting poems I have ever read. It focused mostly on the transportation of the slaves during the slave trade. This poem made me realize how heavy words can be when used properly. This poem almost seems like an act of rebellion to the way history is normally told. History is generally taught through the perspective of Christianity, more specifically in Europe. This poem constantly references the Bible. Stories like Exodus, the Ark of the Covenant, and Genesis are talked about, which are stories about great migrations. I think that talking about these stories with the slave trade amplifies the importance of the already heavy topic in a tasteful way.

The brutality of the wording is absolutely necessary in order to induce empathy in the reader. One of the lines that I found to be extremely interesting was when the narrator comments on the “men with eyes heavy as anchors, who sank without tombs” (Walcott 8). This line implies that suicide is much more preferable than living as a slave, and comparing eyes to anchors is a beautiful yet heartbreaking use of a simile. The idea that there is no tomb, just the ocean, implies that life is not the only thing being taken, but culture is being taken as well. Almost every culture has some type of ritual for death. The slave trade took that away for Africans, just as they stripped them of their entire culture. I thought this was a heavy line but it was extremely interesting to think about.

I also wanted to comment on how interesting it was to consider the ocean the “grey vault” that holds African history. The ocean is almost like an omnipotent being in this poem, the way it has so much power and history. I believe that this is a prime example of why history should be taught more through world literature. The way history is taught is extremely biased, but through world literature we can learn to gather information and truly learn from the past.