Derek Walcott, author of The Sea Is History, grew up in Saint Lucia, a former Caribbean

colony of France and England. Like the colonial history of the island, he had a multi-ethnic
background—African, English, Dutch. The Sea Is History explores the past and questions
the validity of the idea that History is the same as tribal memory and only exists when
recorded canonically, such as in a history book, or through monuments. Drawing on
references to the Bible, history, and nature, Walcott writes about three linked themes. The
first theme is the idea of the Bible as a historical document. The second is that the journey of
African slaves to the Caribbean has parallels with the journey of the Israelites to the
Promised Land. This leads into the third idea, which is that History only exists if memory and
events are recorded and accepted as historical.

From the beginning, The Sea Is History poses question about history and memory. The first
stanza reads “Where are your monuments, your battles, martyrs? / Where is your tribal
memory? Sirs, / in that great vault. The sea. The sea / has locked them up. The sea is
History.” Asking for proof of tribal memory by asking for concrete markers of history like
monuments, people, and locations implies that tribal memory may not exist if concrete
markers of those memories don’t exist. The second half of the stanza retorts that the sea
holds memory, because the sea is History: something fluid and everchanging is the record of
time and experience. Line 24, “the ocean kept turning blank pages // looking for History”
comes after several stanzas of putting the experience of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade
parallel to the parts of the Bible that mark the Israelites’ journey away from Egypt. Here,
Walcott uses the irony of listing historical events and then implying that they are not truly
History to highlight the overarching themes.

By naming parts of the journey to the Caribbean with biblical markers (Genesis, Exodus, the
Ark of the Covenant, the Song of Solomon), he marks the journey as an important event, on
par with something in a religious text, but also alludes to the fact that the events in the Bible
are not commonly accepted as real events, because the Bible is a religious text and is not
accepted as a historical text. Walcott repeatedly references biblical events, then denies their
position in History throughout the poem: “that was just Lamentations, / it was not History;
“(50). He also writes “and that was Emancipation–…vanishing swiftly…but that was not
History, / that was only faith” (61, 63, 65). Here, emancipation, a historical event, is also
denied a place in History because it was only faith, nothing real. After all, the joy around its
occurrence vanishes “as the sea’s lace dries in the sun” (line 64). History begins only after
various authority figures, like ambassadors, police, and judges, examine each case closely.

fireflies with bright ideas

and bats like jetting ambassadors

and the mantis, like khaki police,

and the furred caterpillars of judges

examining each case closely

(…)

of History, really beginning. (70-74, 79)

Without the approval of authority figures, the reality and existence of events and their effects
are questioned. These events, until they are approved, are not part of History.

By entwining real experiences and events with parts of a document like the Bible, which is
important and regarded as containing holy truth, but whose historical accuracy is doubted,
Walcott implies that the Bible is a truthful historical and cultural document and that the reality
of the events of the Atlantic Slave Trade and its effects are as doubted as the events and
experiences of the Bible. Connecting the journey of Africans to the Caribbean and the
journey of Israelites out of Egypt is also ironic: while one group of people is forcibly taken on
a journey across the ocean ending in their enslavement, the other group leaves on a journey
across the ocean ending up in the Promised Land. However, after traveling across the
ocean, neither group arrives at their final destination: the Israelites wander through the
desert for 40 years and the descendants of slaves still work to this day to reach the promised
land of actual equality.

I chose to create a visual translation, specifically, a layered paper cutout. This was inspired
by part by the idea in The Sea Is History that History only exists if recorded in a clear and
concrete form and by Zong!, another work about the slave trade and the sea. The big idea
for this translation was the concept of the obscurity of some historical events, how they get
covered up and forgotten. Secondarily, in The Sea Is History, the sea holds the record of
historical events, of all the drowned and forgotten people. In Zong!, M. NourbeSe Philip piles
words on top of each other, allowing them to obscure each other. While each word holds
meaning within itself and the source text, they are decontextualized and deconstructed in the
poem—so there is no obvious meaning in the text of the poems. The third concept for this
piece was the idea of skeletons and shadows, remnants of human history and objects that
used to exist. Lastly, I wanted to play with the idea of transparency: objects revealing certain
parts of objects beneath them, while obscuring other parts.

Papercutting is a medium that I am familiar with and that works well to show these aspects.
This medium works especially well because The Sea Is History is rich with visual metaphors
relating to the sea, so the composition is based off actual examples of figurative language in
the poem. The background of the piece is a cross section of the ocean spilling off a sheet of
silver paper, which is supposed to recall a frame. The moon is the profile of a white woman.
Other elements include a shark, a grouper, white cowries, and seaweed. The moon is a
white woman, for “the white sisters clapping / to the waves’ progress, / and that was
Emancipation—” (59-61): it appears as part of the scene, but isn’t an earthly element and is
quite removed from everything else.

The seaweed is cut to resemble, in part, a cathedral and contains several silhouettes of
people. This stays subtle and almost hidden, just as the history and human element of the
slave trade is also downplayed. Between the fronds of seaweed, hiding part of one plant and
obscuring the patterns of another, a grouper swims towards the viewer. Groupers are
massive apex predators who hunt by simply inhaling, sucking in everything in their path.
The fish represents the institutions and world powers that ran the slave trade and continue to
uphold discriminatory and exploitative ideologies. The seaweed grows out of piles of white
cowries. In The Sea Is History, white cowries “clustered like manacles / on the drowned
women” (20). This is a visual metaphor for the cultures and struggles that have formed as a
consequence of slavery.

In the background of the image, directly carved out of the sheet that is the ocean, is the
negative of a sunken caravel. Because the bottom sheet is silver, when the piece is moved,
the ship may shine silver or recede into shadow, depending on the angle. The use of
recessed space for something that should project out, and how the ship can either recede
completely or stand out depending on the angle is supposed to recall memory and bringing
forth or hiding history. The shark in the background is another reminder of memory, hovering
over everything. While I tried to keep a anatomical/skeletal, semi-transparent feel for all the
elements of the piece, the shark showcases the anatomical effect the best.

In this medium, it’s easy to insert an element of intentional unintelligibility. There are no
words to provide a specific narrative. The viewer must carefully observe the details of the
image for more information, but it must be explained to provide a useful amount of
information to the average viewer. While this medium easily shows intentional unintelligibility,
sometimes the unintelligibility is unintentional. However, papercuts are delicate but
papercutting takes a lot of force, so I was limited by the size and shape of the sheet and the
size of the space I had to work with, as well as how much force I could exert in certain areas
of the piece and how much pressure I could put on my hands. I would consider this
translation successful if people can tell what all the elements are, and upon closer
inspection, notice the human details in the work and be curious as to why they are there. If
observers have prior knowledge of The Sea Is History, I would also consider my translation
successful if they could recall the source material from my work. For this translation, I aim for
something in the vein of Frost’s translations of Lorca’s poetry: seemingly unrelated without
context, but clearly related once context is given.

The process of translation involves a lot of interpretation. Transforming the source material
into something else requires a significant amount of labor and thought, more than one might
assume. As we discussed earlier in the semester, people who create translations may not be
considered original authors, but each work is unique and requires just as much work as
creating something from scratch.

Explanations become endless, for there always remains something more that can be said.
There is a certain religious fervor in the poem as we get a glimpse of Walcott’s artistic use of
language and metaphor. He possesses a unique way of meditation upon suffering and death
with an ironic perception of life.

His framework resembles more or less, the framework of the master English versifiers, but
his rhyme scheme is not like theirs. Walcott’s lines go on moving from one verse to another
Two journeys have been superimposed one upon the other in this poem. It starts rather
innocuously with Walcott’s familiar interrogative formula – the master questioning the
juvenile native. At the very outset, the poet challenges the concept that history must be
defined as a documented fact or rest in archaeological evidence.
In the course of the poem, Walcott also debates the theory that Biblical events are not
historical but mythical. As he pursues his theme, Walcott offers obvious contrasts and shows
his knowledge of both the myth of creation and that of evolution.
Throughout the poem, he is also aware that he blacks have a little individual history they can
reconstruct but must revert to the year when, as the essayist, John Squire describes,
“Columbus’s doom-burdened caravels” sailed to the West Indies by mistake, i.e. 1492.

In the later part of the poem, Walcott, therefore, symbolically links it to the history of the
Renaissance Movement when new sea-routes were discovered and new colonies were
established by the European powers.
The first stanza of the poem is a break from the terza rima structure of the poem where the
forces of opposition strongly react when the ruler asks for information regarding the “martyrs
of the battle” between the rulers and the subjects. The subject replies respectfully that they
lie in the “grey vault”. By asking this question, the ruler is, in a way, provoking his lowly
subject’s “tribal memory”. What is this “grey vault”? It is “The Sea”. The lantern of the caravel
is the “light of benediction” for the poor native subject, which he calls the Genesis of his tribe.
Then the “packed cries of the slave ships are their Exodus”. There is a close similarity
between the Biblical events like the Exodus, the Ark of the Covenant, and the Song of
Solomon with the history of wholesale migration of the slave subjects transported in slave
ships from Africa.

There are violence and bloodshed in the picture of the “brigands” who “barbecued cattle”,
which leads to an event of fairly recent Caribbean history. Then the poet refers to the “tidal”
wave swallowing Port Royal, which can easily be compared to Jonah being swallowed by a
large fish for transgressing God’s orders. Again the poet makes frequent reference to
drowning through which he also shows his sensitivity for the suffering of women as separate
entities of the tribe. What is this “grey vault”? It is “The Sea”. The lantern of the caravel is the
“light of benediction” for the poor native subject, which he calls the Genesis of his tribe. Then
the “packed cries of the slave ships are their Exodus”. There is a close similarity between the
Biblical events like the Exodus, the Ark of the Covenant, and the Song of Solomon with the
history of wholesale migration of the slave subjects transported in slave ships from Africa.

There are violence and bloodshed in the picture of the “brigands” who “barbecued cattle”,
which leads to an event of fairly recent Caribbean history. Then the poet refers to the “tidal”
wave swallowing Port Royal, which can easily be compared to Jonah being swallowed by a
large fish for transgressing God’s orders. Again the poet makes frequent reference to
drowning through which he also shows his sensitivity for the suffering of women as separate
entities of the tribe.
There is both the pain of suffering and the pain of nostalgia when Walcott refers to the
“spires lancing the side of God/as His son set”—a poignant pun on the death of Jesus Christ,
the Son of God, who died to save mankind. For the Blacks, the Emancipation Act of 1863
was meant as deliverance, but the celebration of the partial victory of the blacks “Vanishes
swiftly as the sea’s lace drives in the sun”. The sight of the sea-foam is one of pure beauty
that betrays Walcott’s deep feelings for his Island. But the independence of the islanders has
meant nothing but racial tension, as it has unleashed a different kind of violence, infighting,
and distress. This proves that the different communities in the West Indies have not been
able to live together as a homogenized group of people.
Here Walcott uses the animal and insect imagery to describe the mixed psyche of the races
in the West Indies. The readers witness metaphors like “the bullfrog bellowing for a vote, the
“mantis, like khaki police” and the “furred caterpillars of judges.”

After looking at the manmade chaos in the West Indies, Walcott writes in a sad tone that
“each rock”, i.e. each tribe in his country, has broken into its own nation so the sea, the
recorder of their unwritten history, has the impudence to indulge in a “salt chuckle”. Before
Independence, it was “other people’s history written upon the Caribbean consciousness, but
now it is time for individual history, an independent nation’s history to assert itself.”
Walcott sees some inkling of the sound of history’s real beginning for the West Indies. But
even in the end, he challenges the concept of history as he thinks that the idea of history is
like a deity, a force, or a science. Just as he attempts to break with the tradition of the
English language and literature in order to invest his diction with the blood of his tribe, so
too, he wants to break with traditional definition and knowledge of all that constitutes history.

Walcott sees his Caribbean heritage as a set of collected values that he can use to
challenge the materialistic, consumer society the Islands have become, where individualism
is only another brand of self-centeredness. Even as he calls his poetic talents a “mulatto of
style”, he wishes the multiracial, polyglot islanders to liberate themselves and the world’s
major cultures.
Walcott’s deepest desire is to give his “subdued society” a voice of its own. He also perhaps
wishes for a future where the dilemma of being black in skin and white in mind can be solved
to all times to come.

The Sea is History by Derek Walcott -Literary and Biblical References Explained

The words Middle Passage are a reference to the trade in which millions of Africans were
shipped to the New World (Europe/America/Australia) as a part of the slave trade.
In line 8 the caraval is a historical reference to the Portuguese ships of the 15th century (Age
of Discovery) that were used to explore the West Africa and Atlantic Ocean. It was through
these ships that the Europeans arrived at Africa.
In line 9 Genesis is a Biblical reference to The Book of Genesis which is the first book of
Christian Old Testament or the Old Bible (Torah). The Genesis contains the story of the
Origin or the beginning of the world where God created the world and man. The word
genesis in itself means beginning. In the poem this means that the history of the African
natives began when the European colonizers arrived.
In line 12 Exodus is a reference to the Book of Exodus, the second book of Christian Old
Testament or the Old Bible (Torah). This book contains the story of the children of Israel
leaving the slavery in Egypt, in the guidance of Moses. The word Exodus also means ending
or closure. In the poem, the Exodus means that the story of the native Africans ends when
they were taken aboard the ships as slaves and had to leave their homeland, this is in
contrast to the Biblical reference mentioned above, where the slaves were freed when they
left their homeland Egypt.
Throughout the poem, the poet connects the sufferings and historical moments of Jews and
Christians with the African sufferings. He begins by stating that the history is in the sea, and
then tells how the boats of the colonizers came from sea, and when they departed they took
the African slaves with them who were moaning and crying from being beaten and harassed.
These slaves died in the sea and their bones melted and became one with the corals of the
sea, that is reinforcing the idea that the sea holds the history of the black African men. The
corals and bones combined to make colourful mosaics under the sea that were covered by
the so-called 'blessings' of the shark; here shark is a reference to the colonizers who were
hungry like shark for power and domination. The poet is saying that the colonizers claimed
that they are a blessing to the illiterate people of Africa but actually this blessing is a
shark-like danger that will swallow everything out of hunger and greed. This is the Exodus,
or Chapter 2 for the African book of history.
In line 16 the Art of the Covenant also known as the Ark of Testimony is a chest (described
in the Book of Exodus) that contains the stone tablets on which the Ten Commandments are
written. This chest also contains Moses' Rod and a jar of manna (mann-o-salva). This chest
(Ark) was kept in the Temple of Solomon for a long time and became lost when the Temple
was destroyed. In the poem, the poet is saying that the bones of the slaves that rest under
the sea make mosaics and they are the African version of Ark of the Covenant, meaning that
they are the prized historical items for the Africans the same way the Ark contains the prized
historical and religious items for the Christians.
In line 19 the plangent word means loud echoing and sorrowful sound. Therefore the
plangent harp means the sorrowful songs of the Black tradition that speak of their sufferings.
In line 19 the Babylonian bondage is a historical reference to the Babylonian Exile or
Babylonian Captivity which is the greatest pivotal event in Jewish history. This was the event
in which the Jews were held captive in Babylonia (present-day Iraq). The word bondage
means slavery. In the poem, the poet is trying to say that the sorrowful songs of the African
people talk about the African version of the Babylonian bondage, to put in simple terms, it
means those songs talk about the African native captives instead of Jewish captives. These
sad songs are coming from the sea floor, which means the sea contains this moment of
African history. In line 20 the white cowries is a nautical reference to the large white sea
shells shaped like an egg. These shells are especially used as jewelry and for decorative
purposes. These shells were used as currency in Africa for many centuries.
In line 21 the drowned women is a literary reference to the fact that suicide became a very
popular subject in arts and literature of the Victorian society. The literary and visual
representations or icons of drowned women reached all strata of the Victorian society. In
London, although the rate of female suicide was not higher than of men, it was rumored that
due to the rising economic needs of women and the need to marry a rich man, the women of
Victorian society fell into prostitution out of despair and heartbreaks, and eventually
attempted suicide by jumping off a bridge (mostly over River Thames). The women chose to
die honorably rather than live in dishonor (because the Victorians cared a lot about their
reputation). In the poem, the poet is saying that next in history came the story of these
women who when drowned and dropped to the floor of the sea became covered by the
sea-shells/ cowries that formed chains around them. In line 22 the ivory bracelets is the
reference to this same, as ivory means white color and the cowries were white in color that
formed chains and bracelets around the women.
In line 23 the Song of Solomon is a reference to a series of lyrical poems in the form of a
dialogue between a young woman and her lover. The poems praised the greatness of
Solomon as well that is why the title includes this name. This book of poems was included in
the Old Testament of Bible. Possibly in the poem the poet is saying that the women who
drowned were chained with the songs of their failed love stories (since they committed
suicide when their love failed).
The poet says that the ocean keeps looking for history, meaning that this is still not the real
history of the blacks, and that we have to go deeper into the ocean to locate more secrets,
more memories in order to understand the real history of Africa. The men came with 'eyes as
heavy as anchors that sank without tombs' is a reference to the colonizers the British and
Europeans whose eyes were full of merciless expressions. The idea of 'Heavy eyes' creates
a very unpleasant feeling. This can also be a reference to the facts that when the colonizers
arrived at the African coasts they dropped the anchors of their ships so they could land and
stay at Africa.
In line 28 the word brigands means the members of gangs that robbed people living in
forests and mountains. It is possible that the poet is showing how those people who were
robbing the country of Africa were enjoying themselves by hunting and killing the animals of
Africa and making barbecues. This also shows they had a lack of conscience and guilt, for
they continue to eat at their ease. Note that cattle are usually the animals kept by humans
for their meat, milk etc. and are a source of business for the local people.
In line 31 tidal wave swallowing Port Royal is a historical reference to the most important city
of Jamaica. Port Royal, Jamaica, commonly referred to as "the wickedest city on earth"
conjures images of pirates, conquests, looting, riches, destruction and devastation. It rapidly
grew to become the most important trading post in the New World. At the height of its
glittering wealth, in 1692, Port Royal was consumed by an earthquake and two thirds of the
town sank into the sea. A series of fires and hurricanes followed and the town was never
restored to its former glory.
In line 32 Jonah is a Biblical reference to Younas the prophet of Israel who is famous for
being swallowed by a giant fish or whale. In the poem, the poet is connecting the Biblical
reference to the historical, and saying that the way the waves swallowed Port Royal, the hub
of Caribbean coastal business, is similar to the way Jonah was swallowed by the giant fish.
In line 33 the poet asks where is the Caribbean version of Renaissance? We already know
the European version of Renaissance, which was an important period in the English History.
But where is 'your' i.e. the natives' Renaissance? The answer is that it is locked in the sea
where the men of war floated down. The poet asks the reader to put on goggles so he can
be guided safely to the bottom of the sea. The sea-bed is like a city in itself, it has
colonnades of corals and it has Gothic windows in the form of sea fans. Note that both pillars
or columns evoke the image of prestigious and old buildings like those of the Greek and
Roman origin, and the Gothic windows remind us of the Gothic style architecture that was
very common in the past. This again shows that the sea has its own forms of historical
imagery under the water. In this underwater place a grouper (a large, heavy and ugly fish
with rough scales) with onyx eyes (eyes shining and glittering like a precious stone called
onyx) lives and its scales glimmer like jewels. The fish is being called as a bald queen,
because although the fish has no crown on its head (it is therefore bald), it is still majestic in
its own way. The fishes and the corals are the wealth of the sea that the sea protected from
the hands of humans. Bald queen may also be a reference to Queen Elizabeth I who after
suffering from small pox became half bald and dependent on wigs and cosmetics.
The underwater caves with a lot of ridges and creases are full of barnacles and these are
our cathedrals.
In line 47 Gomorrah is a Biblical reference to the city mentioned in the Book of Genesis as
well as in Quran. This city, among with five others, was called the 'cities of the plain' ; the
plain (are north of modern day Red Sea) was compared to the garden of Eden, as being a
land well-watered and green, suitable for grazing livestock. Judgement by God was passed
down on these cities and Gomorrah was completely consumed by fire. Since then,
Gomorrah is known as a symbol of unforgivable sin, and a manifestation of God's wrath. The
poet is trying to say that there has been fires and destruction in Africa too, just like
Gomorrah.
In line 53 brown reeds of villages means that the houses that had their roofs constructed
from reeds, the thin tall, straw-like plants that grow in wet areas and used in construction.
The villages of the natives were soon concealed and converted into towns. This is a
reference to the reconstruction of the villages into towns in Africa as the colonizers brought
with them better city plans for Africa.
In line 56 spires are conical or pyramidal structures on top of a building, particularly a church
tower. Symbolically, spires have two functions. The first is to proclaim a war-like power. A
spire, with its reminiscence of the spear point, gives the impression of strength. The second
is to reach up toward the skies. A spire on a church or cathedral is not just a symbol of piety,
but is often seen as a symbol of the wealth and prestige.
In line 57 lancing is a reference to the act of piercing. Perhaps the poet is trying to say that
the churches that the colonizers have erected in Africa, their spires are so high and pointy
that they are literally piercing God. This means the poet may be saying that the 'pious' acts
of the colonizers are even hurting God and His son.
In line 61 Emancipation is a reference to the Historical event in English History in which the
Blacks living in America were 'emancipated' or freed from slavery. The poet is saying that for
the natives the religion of Christianity was supposed to bring freedom from paganism, from
illiteracy and heathen rituals but this jubilation or celebration vanished swiftly the same way
the sea lace dries quickly in the sun. It was a fleeting moment of joy that soon disappeared.
But this is not what the African history is made of, it is not centered on religion.
Each rock breaking into its own nation can symbolize the segregation in which Africa was
divided by the colonizers into smaller states that could be controlled easily by the French
and English colonizers. After this came the church councils (synod) buzzing like flies, and
the official clerks (secretaries) are like herons, the large fish-eating birds, the politicians are
like frogs who came asking for votes, and there were intellectuals who lit up like fireflies with
bright ideas for the betterment of the country, and then the ambassadors of other countries
swooped in like bats, and the police and judges arrived as well and the whole Western
System was brought into Africa. The poet is saying that this is where the history really
began, when the political system began, because after this the Africans started to think
about creating their own political parties in order to revolt against the imposing system of
colonizers.
In the last three stanzas of the poem, the poet refers to various insects and animals like
'flies', 'bullfrogs' and 'mantis' which recall the Biblical story of the Ten Plagues that were sent
by God on Egypt as punishment to Pharaoh for not freeing the Israeli people. The Ten
Plagues included the plague of sending swarms of flies down on Egypt, swarms of frogs and
swarms of locusts which are similar to grasshoppers and close relatives of the Praying
Mantis. Basically, the poet is saying that the Bureaucratic posts in the democratic institutions
brought by the colonizers are nothing but plagues and animals.

Comparison of the treatment of the sea in Diving into the Wreck by Rich and The Sea is
History by Walcott.

INTRODUCTION
Derek Walcott is a Saint Lucian poet and playwright. Besides having won the Nobel Prize in
Literature, he has won numerous literary awards over the course of his career. Methodism
and spirituality have played a significant role from the beginning in Walcott's work. He
commented, "I have never separated the writing of poetry from prayer. I have grown up
believing it is a vocation, a religious vocation”.
Adrienne Rich was an American poet, essayist and feminist. She was credited with brining
the oppression of women into the poetic discourse. Rich’s work has explored issues of
identity, sexuality and politics; her formally ambitious poetics have reflected her continued
search for social justice, her role in the anti-war movement, and her radical feminism.
Utilizing speech cadences, enjambment and irregular line and stanza lengths, Rich’s open
forms have sought to include ostensibly “non-poetic” language into poetry.

SYMBOLISM OF THE SEA IN LITERATURE

Water is a universal symbol of change and is often present at turning points in a story. Since
water is often a sign of life, many times water represents life. Water can also be up into two
categories: fresh water and bad/polluted water. Fresh water can represent good health, and
bad water symbolizes bad health. Water can also mean purity and cleansing. It also
represents thirst, which can be interpreted as a thirst for something specific, such as
knowledge or enlightenment.

The ocean is a sign of power and strength, dominating all other symbols of water--due to its
immensity. All life was ocean-born and life still exists in the ocean; therefore the ocean
represents life. Also, the ocean represents mystery. The ocean is known for being
unpredictable and uncontrollable, hard to navigate in time of storm and sometimes known for
being beautifully calm. Sometimes, the ocean is referred to as being a tear of God or the
sorrow; a place where you leave your bad memories and sadness. The ocean is also known
to symbolize hope, truth, and in some cases, mystery and magic. The ocean's salt can also
symbolize being well grounded, or stabilized.

The sea is a wonderful and powerful image that often appears in dreams. Water is linked
with the feminine and in a dream may represent the feminine aspect of one's personality.
The sea figures predominantly in many creation stories as the bearer of all life. It is stormy,
chaotic, and life-giving. Water often symbolizes the unconscious or the soul. Look to see if it
is calm or what might be lurking under the surface.

The ocean may contain what one perceives as danger, such as lurking monsters, sharks or
whales, storms, or tidal waves. These "dangers" may represent powerful and unpredictable
feelings, a repressed aspect of one's personality, or an issue dwelling under the surface. The
seas figure predominantly in creation myths as the bearer of all life.
The poet Walt Whitman, uses the sea as a metaphor for immortality in a cluster of nine
poems which are part of his 1881 Leaves of Grass. In context he uses a ship as a metaphor
for man’s passage through life beginning with birth and ending with death. Henry Thoreau
used the sea as a metaphor for the enrichment of man’s mind and the limitlessness of his
abilities. Another significance in the use of the sea as a metaphor for the voyage through
personal growth, like we saw with Whitman, is the insight that it provides the reader about
the writer.
COMPARISON OF THE TREATMENT OF SEA IN RICH'S AND WALCOTT'S POEMS

The poem entitled “The Sea is History” connects Walcott’s present environment to its initial
condition by situating the Caribbean’s genesis in the middle passage, describing the creation
of the New World as imagined by European colonists, and chronicling the islands’ fight for
independence. The interrogative beginning, “Where are your monuments, your battles, your
martyrs? / Where is your tribal memory?” immediately draws our attention to the lack of
these things – items that typically compose a cultural history. The answer, “Sirs, / in that grey
vault. The sea. The sea / has locked them up. The sea is History” introduces an element of
forlornness, especially with the word “sea” repeated four times.

Several historians have felt the need to defend the sea from the accusation that it is
“history-less,” claiming that the best defense comes from poet Derek Walcott, in his poem
“The Sea is History”: Maeve Tynan examines this view of the history-filled sea as “medium
for the passage operates as an interstitial site that both conjoins and separates colonizer
and colonized.” She sees the trope of the voyage encapsulating “the uprooting effect of
Imperialism” particularly in the poetry of Derek Walcott. As she puts it, “Walcott’s Odyssean
travellers opt to voyage through history, a dynamic quest into the future that repudiates the
past and grounds his poetics in the here and now.” Tom Leskiw’s paper also addresses the
topic of untold history, by examining the mutualism between humans and sea creatures, and
the ways in which natural and human histories have intertwined. Noting that seas have been
a “barrier to travel since time immemorial and crossing them has often entailed the crossing
of a frontier,” his essay examines how Polynesian mariners’ “intimacy with the sea” gave
them the ability to use “subtle clues for navigation,” clues provided by not only the colour,
taste and patterns of the sea but by fish, plants and seabirds as well.

It is important to note Walcott's acknowledgement of the sea as an entity, an element in

history. Walcott asks of the peoples' "monuments, battles, and martyrs, tribal memories", to
which the response lies "in the sea". But there is a profound biblical allusion to the historical
significance entailed. From chaos emerged light, like "the lantern of a caravel, and that was
Genesis". With these words, the poet is referring to the many children that were birthed
overseas, amidst the struggle of sailing between the islands in flight from oppression. Then
as soon as they are born, the children face "Exodus", "the packed cries, the shit, the
moaning", an exile from a peaceful life, from their own homeland. Walcott is giving a
perspective and an ethnic identity to the Caribbean collective through the description of the
sea as personified by Biblical allusion.

As he compares slavery to “Babylonian bondage” and describes the deaths of men and
women aboard slave ships, he explains that these tragedies only caused the ocean to “turn
blank pages / looking for History”. These horrific events that are “locked in the sea” are the
antithesis of the great monuments and triumphant battles described in the introduction to the
poem. The irony present in the references to biblical stories of creation and redemption
reminds us that the Caribbean’s history will never be one of triumph or deliverance but
instead one of anguish and struggle.

Within the declaration, “the sea is History,” also exists a dramatic pun on the word, “history.”
One could interpret this phrase as the sea holding the answers to history, or “the sea is
History” could be interpreted colloquially as, “the sea is gone.” The former meaning provides
some hope in recovering history, but the latter is completely despondent. It is clear that
Walcott intended this double meaning, for the search for history spans the entirety of the
poem and at one point a real feeling of hopelessness occurs as he writes, “and that was
Lamentations/ that was just Lamentations,/ it was not history”.

The final stanza of “The Sea Is History” Here, the mention of the “salt chuckle of rocks”
returns a sense of ease to the poem as a whole, and the final line, “of History, really
beginning,” also possesses a hopeful tone. History begins at the end of the poem, yet the
images here of the sea are reminiscent of the lines, “The sea / has locked them up. The sea
is History.”

For Walcott, the sea is a reference to the change that comes with the passage of time. The
sea is a symbol of those portions of the African history that are unknown and hidden from
the human eyes. The sea envelops in itself the events and happenings of the African history
that have become taboo and are no longer discussed by people, but are rather repressed in
the 'depths of the sea' of consciousness; “The sea/has locked them up.”

The “Genesis” or the beginning of the crucial part of African history was when the colonizers
traveled by way of sea towards Africa and brought with them a tide of change. The sea acted
as a bridge to connect the colonizers with the African indigenous people. The “Exodus”
came when the colonization resulted in “soldered” bones of the natives and their “packed
cries”. The sea, then, is as vast and deep as history and contains in it the cruelties and
horrors of the past. The sea is the witness to the arriving colonizers and the shipping of the
natives to America and Europe for slavery. Walcott describes the colonizers in the poem as
“the men with eyes as heavy as anchors” and describes that they were like the rabid jaws “of
the tidal wave swallowing Port Royal”. Throughout the poem Walcott uses nautical terms to
describe the incidents that have occurred throughout the African history.

But where is your Renaissance?

Sir, it is locked in them sea sands

out there past the reef's moiling shelf
where the men-o'-war floated down; (33-36)

The sea has locked many things in its enormous belly. It not only contains the secrets, the
horrors and the tales of the natives, but also guards the wealth of rare jewels and marine life.
Walcott highlights the enormity and majesty of the sea. The ocean is presented as
magnanimous and of immeasurable depth. The sea is the place where the history of the
Caribbean people is often located. The slaves and servants were brought to other lands by
the sea route, they died on the sea and the sea-bed became their grave, the colonials
traveled by sea as well. All these are an important part of the history, and the sea by default
becomes the main chapter of the history and cannot be separated from it. The sea has
witnessed many things and is therefore a great vault of all that has happened across it.

History and the sea have a very intimate relationship as they both are always moving and
changing and are virtually uncontrollable. Walcott uses an interesting combination of strong
visual imagery and historical references. He has used the flow of the water to describe the
flow of time. His personification of the sea effectively demonstrates it's and history’s, power
and control. The sea can “lock them up,” it can cause drowning, sinking, struggles; But it can
dry up too – even the sea, despite its undeniable power, has its weaknesses.

“Diving into the Wreck” is Adrienne Rich's most celebrated poem that is often called as the
epic of modern times. The poet in this poem gives a description of the sea and her dive into
the sea, the various things observed and particular experiences underwent are all beautifully
narrated. The poem is adventurous and descriptive of the experience of diving into the sea in
order to search for a wreck. As the seawater is deep and mysterious, so are the meanings of
the poem. The poem is representative of Rich's feminist ideals and the changing conditions
of America. Rich is the diver that wishes to observe the damage done to the female race,
and the wreck of their treasures.

Although it is not named, the Atlantic Ocean is probably the sea that houses the wreck that
the speaker of the poem explores. The sea represents uncovered female history. The image
of the sea is a metaphor of life as sea is full of wreckages; the world too is full of ruins. One
glance around will bring back countless pictures of destruction. Diving into the Wreck
provides the angle of perception about the wreck from both the male and the female side.
Deborah Pope in finding the meaning of the wreck states that the wreck represents the
battered hulk of sexual definitions of the past, which Rich, as an underwater explorer, must
search for evidence of what can be salvaged.

The diver's act of diving into the sea is like undertaking a voyage into a new territory. Rich's
poetry continually testifies to her need to work out possible modes of human existence
verbally, to achieve imaginatively what cannot yet be achieved in actual relationships. The
poem chronicles one woman’s quest for discovery as she journeys alone to seek the truth of
“omitted” and “misrepresented” ideas. Adrienne Rich enables the reader to understand the
journey that the speaker undertakes as one of not only self-discovery, but also as a mission
to understand the universality of humanity.

The body of water isn't always mentioned directly in the poem, but it's definitely
ever-present. The ocean is huge, deeply powerful, magical and somewhat frightening. It
swallowed the ship and it surrounds the diver. It's about as wild and as natural as possible.
Line 32 is where the ocean is mentioned directly. The ocean hits the diver as a surprise, as
the diver cannot see as she moves down the ladder to descend into the water. This surprise
makes the ocean seem frightening, as it harbours unknown, unseen entities.

And there is no one

to tell me when the ocean
will begin. (31-33)

As the poem progresses, the diver is learning to move underwater, to get used to the feeling
of actually being "inside" the ocean. The ocean is completely in control though, and the diver
cannot fight it or use his or her power. Rich calls the ocean as a 'deep element' in which the
diver has to learn to adapt: “you breathe differently down here.” The speaker describes a log
as being "water-eaten." It seems like an ordinary thing to say, but it gives an image of the
ocean as a kind of animal. It gnaws and chews and slowly devours all the human things that
fall into it. It has a slow, inescapable power that makes it a scary force in this poem.
The poem narrates the speaker’s quest as she explores a sunken ship to discover the cause
of the disaster and to salvage whatever treasures remain. The sea is a traditional literary
symbol of the unconscious. To dive is to probe beneath the surface for hidden meanings, to
learn about one’s submerged desires and emotions. In this poem, the diver is exploring a
wreck—a ship that has failed to survive.
The poem is an extended metaphor in which the dive comes to signify the diver’s quest for
knowledge and power. Her descent into the primal depths of the sea of life, of
consciousness, transforms her: She becomes a creature of a different world. The "awkward
mask" and crippling flippers are inappropriate for the land-based world but essential for the
underwater journey. She apparently has become the drowned vessel as well, the boat and
its figurehead:

whose drowned face sleeps with open eyes

whose breasts still bear the stress
whose silver, copper, vermeil cargo lies
obscurely inside barrels. (80-83)

By delving into the mystery, looking beneath the surface, the diver learns the secret of her
own submerged power. The diver is not only the boat and its cargo, a figurehead, an
observer, an explorer. She/he is also a participant in the disaster: "we are the half-destroyed
instruments/ that once held to a course."
The theme of descent and return is a traditional one in Western literature and this is
employed by Adrienne Rich in a modern setting. Perhaps the diver represents all humans,
submerging into the depths of personal histories to find out who they really are. In 1971,
Rich wrote an essay entitled "When We Dead Awaken: Writing as Re-Vision." In the article,
she wrote about an awakening of women’s consciousness, their "drive to self-knowledge."
She wrote, "language has trapped as well as liberated us." She urged women to reexamine
their history, to learn "to see—and therefore live—afresh."
If the history books do not tell women’s stories, they must search the past (dive into the
ocean) and find the evidence so that they can retell the old stories. The journey to discover
one’s identity is like a dive to discover a shipwreck, dangerous, mysterious but fascinating.
So many threats await down the deep level of the sea, yet the charming adventure raises the
irresistible invitation into the unknown world where the woman may find her hidden self. She
is afraid, she is uncertain about what lays ahead, therefore she prepares and arm herself,
with knowledge, with weapons, with the brave expectation of new, great change she may go
through. The wreck she is diving into is the patriarchal society where she is living in, her
community, her family, her belief.
As noted, Rich stated that this poem “is” an experience rather than about an experience, is
the idea of searching our memories, our past. And that is a journey that can only be done
alone, subjectively. So using the symbolism of the dive, and the shipwreck, it appears that
she wants to go back and figure out what happened in her life (her journey, or course) that
left her damaged. To do this, she has to dive deep in the water, which is not pretty but black
and dark, symbolizing that the journey is fearful. Rather than jump right into the water as
some divers do, she has to use the ladder to slowly descend into the water, indicating
hesitancy. The repetition of the phrase "I go down" in the third stanza show that this is a slow
and gradual process. So as she retreats into her memories, she’s not exactly sure at what
point she’ll find clues or meaning. Also, because the water creates buoyancy, she really has
to hold onto it to “go down”, so it’s not an easy task to go into the unknown (the sea of
memories).

“Diving into the Wreck” contains Rich's fullest, most dramatic reference to the sea. In this
poem, the speaker gives up her old notions of power because they don't seem to apply
where the sea is the controlling element. Attempts to gain power over the sea appear
useless to Rich's diver, who has to move differently in the sea and adjust. The sea provides
a valuable context for a developing consciousness. In one of her poems, Rich uses the sea
chiefly as a metaphor of change. The ocean represents all that is vast and unknowable. In
another poem, she finds the sea lacking as an instructor about how to live one's life.
Ultimately, for Rich, the sea is its own entity, often violent and mainly separate from human
concerns. The setting of the ocean can be seen as a symbolic metaphor for the real world
and society as a whole.

CONCLUSION

In conclusion, the sea represents the unknown, the hidden and the secret for both Walcott
and Rich. The sea is powerful and cannot be controlled by mere humans. It is deep and full
of remnants of history such as the traces of the colonizers crossing it to get to Africa, or the
painful past of the women of the world. Going into the sea results in some sort of discovery,
or unlocking of mysteries; ultimately, the sea is a symbol of the past lives of humans.

On 19 March 1783, the African Olaudah Equiano called on anti-slavery campaigner Granville
Sharp (see Campaign for abolition with news of an event that, even by the standards of the
transatlantic slave trade, was scarcely credible.

132 lives lost

Three days earlier, a legal case in London had heard how the Liverpool owners of the ship,
the Zong, had sued the ship's underwriters for the value of 132 Africans lost on a voyage
from Africa to Jamaica. The owners claimed that the Africans had been thrown overboard
when – because of poor navigation – the ship had sailed past its destination in Jamaica and
had run short of water. To save the healthy, the sick, (or those who were said to be sick)
were killed. There was however no such shortage.

The jury decided that the underwriters were obliged, under law, to pay. Two months later,
however, they went to Lord Mansfield's Court of King's Bench seeking a second trial and a
reversal of the original decision. That hearing, which took place on 21–22 May 1783, was
recorded at Granville Sharp's request. Most of what we know about the Zong derives from
that report.

The voyage and the massacre

tn_1973_73The Zong had been a Dutch vessel, the Zorgue, seized by the British in 1781 off
West Africa, along with 244 Africans on board. It was then bought by the captain of a
Liverpool slave ship on behalf of his Liverpool owners. With a new make-shift crew,
captained by Luke Collingwood, an experienced slave-ship surgeon, the Zong traded at
Cape Coast and Accra, accumulating a final complement of 442 enslaved Africans. The ship
and its human cargo, now insured with underwriters in England for £8,000, sailed for
supplies to São Tomé, an island off the west coast of Africa, leaving there for Jamaica on 6
September 1781. Captain Collingwood was ill throughout much of the voyage.

The ship sighted Tobago on 18/19 November and sailed on, mistaking Jamaica for the
French colony of St Domingue (later Haiti) and overshot Jamaica. Between 29 November
and 1 December, three groups, totalling 132 people, were thrown to their deaths from the
Zong.

The ship arrived in Black River, Jamaica, on 22 December. Captain Luke Collingwood died
shortly afterwards, and the surviving 200 African captives were advertised for sale. The
ship's log – the formal record of everything that happened on the ship – had mysteriously
disappeared.

Back in London, on 22 May 1783, Lord Mansfield and Justices Wills and Buller agreed with
the underwriters and decided that there should be a new trial. But there is no evidence that it
ever took place. The case and the killings on the Zong have reverberated down to the
present day.

Standard practice

tn_zba2471Like other cargoes, the Africans on the Zong were insured by the ship's owners:
each had a price on their head. It was also an accepted convention of English maritime
insurance that, under certain conditions, compensation would be paid for dead Africans. Of
those killed in the course of a shipboard insurrection (of which there were many) or who died
of wounds, and even those thrown overboard during the crushing of a rebellion, each would
have their value returned to the ship's owners by the underwriters.

This had been standard practice long before the Zong incident. Someone on board the
Zong, moreover, clearly knew that maritime insurance allowed for such claims to be made.
However, up to 1783, no one as far as is known had claimed for the death of Africans
deliberately killed in order to make an insurance claim.

Mystery

tn_2006_44_11To this day, mystery surrounds what happened on the Zong. Traditionally,
Captain Collingwood has been blamed, yet he was mortally sick and, for long spells, had
handed over control of the ship to others. The mate James Kelsall was suspended after a
row with Collingwood, and the ship for a while had been in the direction of passenger Robert
Stubbs, himself an ex-slave captain.

Was the navigation error caused by the confusion of responsibility on the ship? And who first
came up with the idea or murdering the Africans? Whatever the answer to that question, no
member of the crew opposed the decision to kill them.

Almost as surprising was the decision by the Liverpool merchants – the William Gregson
syndicate, two of whom had been mayor of Liverpool – to sue for their money in the first
case. They were perfectly happy to go to court, with all the inevitable publicity, and openly
admit that their crew had killed 132 Africans.

A question of property and insurance

When the case was heard before Chief Lord Justice Mansfield, eminent counsel, notably the
solicitor general John Lee argued vigorously that the killings were not a matter of murder or
morality but solely involved a question of property and insurance:

What is this claim that human people have been thrown overboard? This is a case of
chattels or goods. Blacks are goods and property; it is madness to accuse these well-serving
honourable men of murder. They acted out of necessity and in the most appropriate manner
for the cause. The late Captain Collingwood acted in the interest of his ship to protect the
safety of his crew. To question the judgement of an experienced well-travelled captain held in
the highest regard is one of folly, especially when talking of slaves. The case is the same as
if wood had been thrown overboard.

However, even Lord Mansfield, generally sympathetic to the slaving lobby, felt uncertain
about this line of reasoning.

At one level, the Zong case was an extension of existing legal and commercial practice.
Africans were bought and sold as property, and they were insured as property. If killed by the
ship's crew in self-defence, their value was recoverable – as property. The Gregson
syndicate went to court with this in mind: they were Liverpool slave traders who handled
Africans as commodities – and they wanted their money back.

The Zong affair and abolition

They had not reckoned, however, with Granville Sharp and Olaudah Equiano. Sharp, well
experienced in raising a social and legal uproar, was incensed by what he learned in 1783.
He embarked on yet another personal campaign, this time to bring to justice the guilty men
from the Zong (he failed). He also set out to alert men in high positions – in politics, the law,
the Church, indeed anyone of influence – about the Zong case. Sharp was determined to
expose the killings in the hope of reining in the excesses of the slave ships and of ending
slavery itself.
The subsequent outcry, especially among churchman, was to have a profound effect on the
course of abolition. Indeed there is a direct line of descent from outrage at the Zong affair in
1783 to the founding of the Abolition Society in 1787. In the following years, the case was
referred to time and again when men wrote about the slave trade. The Zong became a
marker of the extreme depravity that characterised the trade.

Yet the deliberate killings of Africans during voyages of slave ships did not end following the
Zong. Indeed they actually increased in the early 19th century: When, following abolition of
the slave trade in 1807, Royal Navy vessels chased suspected illegal slave ships, the
slavers' crews were often prepared to throw Africans overboard rather than be caught with
slaves on board and have the vessels impounded.

The terrible story of the Zong left an indelible mark on all who learned of it in the 1780s. The
people who remembered it best were, of course, the 200 African survivors sold at Black
River, Jamaica, who had heard the screams of their drowning shipmates. Today, a memorial
in Black River reminds tourists, heading for the mangroves and alligators outside the town,
of one of the bleakest episodes in the history of the transatlantic slave trade.