Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

Derek Walcott's "Midsummer: 53" reflects on themes of displacement, identity, and cultural memory through the lens of a young speaker’s interactions with a Syrian man in his Caribbean hometown. The poem explores the disorienting effects of migration and the ways in which historical and cultural identities become blurred in the context of the postcolonial world. Through a series of evocative images and allusions to ancient civilizations, Walcott probes the complexities of belonging and the weight of historical narratives on individual lives.

The poem begins with a straightforward observation: "There was one Syrian, with his bicycle, in our town." This figure, initially introduced as a solitary presence, becomes a focal point for the speaker’s curiosity about cultural identity and history. The speaker’s uncertainty about whether the man is "a Syrian or an Assyrian" sets the tone for the rest of the poem, which grapples with questions of origin, race, and historical legacy. This confusion reflects a broader theme in Walcott’s work—the difficulty of defining identity in a world shaped by colonization, migration, and cultural hybridity.

The reference to Assyrians and the writer William Saroyan introduces an ancient and almost mythological dimension to the poem. Saroyan's famous lament that only seventy thousand Assyrians remained at the time he wrote connects the Syrian man in the poem to a distant, fading civilization. The speaker’s question—"where were sixty-nine thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine?"—underscores the erasure of entire peoples and cultures, a consequence of historical conquest, colonization, and migration. Yet, when the speaker poses this question, the Syrian man does not answer. Instead, he "smiled at the length of our street," his silence suggesting both the impossibility of fully answering such a question and the futility of trying to encapsulate complex histories in simple terms.

Walcott uses striking imagery to describe the Syrian man. His "pupils flashed like the hot spokes of a chariot, / or the silver wires of his secondhand machine." These images of heat and motion suggest a connection between the man’s present reality and an ancient, storied past. The "chariot" evokes the grandeur of ancient Assyrian civilization, while the "secondhand machine" (his bicycle) represents his current, humble existence in the Caribbean. The juxtaposition of these two images reflects the tension between history and modernity, between the past that the man carries with him and the reality of his life in a new land.

The speaker’s youthful ignorance is evident in his regret: "I should have asked him about the patterns of birds / migrating in Aramaic, or the correct / pronunciation of wrinkled rivers like 'Tagus.'" This line suggests that the speaker, in retrospect, wishes he had sought a deeper understanding of the man’s cultural and historical knowledge, symbolized here by the ancient language of Aramaic and the rivers that connect civilizations. The reference to the "Tagus," a river in Spain and Portugal, broadens the geographical scope of the poem, linking the speaker’s Caribbean world to a wider historical and cultural context.

The poem also touches on the concept of time, particularly the speaker’s youthful focus on the present: "I was young and direct and my tense / was the present." This acknowledgment of the speaker’s limited perspective highlights the difficulty of fully grasping the complexities of history when one is consumed by the immediacy of the present. The speaker admits that his "ignorance" may have "distorted time," but he suggests that this distortion is less damaging than the "tyrant’s / indifference that altered his future." This line speaks to the power of colonialism and authoritarianism to reshape the destinies of individuals and entire peoples, often erasing their histories in the process.

The description of the Syrian man in his "white shirt" and "black hat" presents him as a figure caught between worlds. His bicycle, with its "iron basket in front," moves "through the mirage / of sugar-cane fields," symbolizing both his physical movement through the Caribbean landscape and the illusory nature of his existence there. The reference to "crediting suits to the cutters" suggests that the Syrian man, like many immigrants, has found a way to survive by engaging in commerce, providing goods on credit to the local laborers. This practical, economic relationship contrasts with the speaker’s more romanticized view of the man’s cultural heritage.

As the poem progresses, the Syrian man’s presence in the town becomes less solitary: "Next, two more Syrians appeared. All three shared a store / behind which they slept." This expansion of the Syrian community in the town reflects the broader phenomenon of migration, as individuals from distant lands come together to build new lives in foreign places. The store they run becomes a symbol of their integration into the local economy, but it is also a place where they "slept," suggesting that their existence in this new world is one of both economic survival and marginalization.

The speaker reflects on how the Syrians are viewed by the locals, noting the "comical" name "ABDUL" associated with them. The name, "so comical to us," carries connotations of otherness and exoticism, as the local population struggles to make sense of the Syrians’ presence in their community. Yet, for the speaker, the Syrians are more than just a curiosity: "to me there were still only seventy thousand / Assyrians, and all of them lived next door." This line emphasizes the speaker’s awareness of the weight of history and the sense of loss that accompanies the Syrian man’s presence. The "hot dark room" where the Syrians live becomes a space of both mystery and cultural depth, filled with "muttering" in a language that contains "winged lions" and "birds cut into a wall." These images evoke the grandeur of Assyrian art and architecture, suggesting that the Syrian man carries with him the remnants of a lost civilization, even as he navigates life in a foreign land.

In "Midsummer: 53," Walcott explores the intersections of history, migration, and cultural identity through the figure of the Syrian man. The poem reflects on the complexities of belonging and the ways in which individuals carry with them the weight of their ancestral past, even as they are displaced in new and unfamiliar environments. Through its rich imagery and nuanced reflections on time and memory, the poem highlights the enduring presence of history in the lives of those who have been uprooted, as well as the challenges of understanding and connecting with that history in the present.

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