Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Moon-Child: A Play
    Moon-Child: A Play
    Moon-Child: A Play
    Ebook98 pages1 hour

    Moon-Child: A Play

    By Derek Walcott

    3.5/5

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    In Moon-Child, the poet and playwright Derek Walcott returns to the island of St. Lucia for a lush and vivid tale of spirituality and the supernatural. In this lyrical new work, the crafty Planter (who may or may not be the Devil in disguise) schemes to take over the island for development. Between him and his goal lies the Bouton family, whose ailing matriarch strikes a bargain: if any of her three sons can get the Devil to feel anger and human weakness, the islanders will win the right to spend the rest of their days in wealth and peace.

    In a fable that reaches from St. Lucia's verdant forests to an explosive ending amid its plantation homes, Walcott has crafted a masterwork rich in flowing language and colorful Creole patois. With roots in Caribbean folklore and an eye toward the island's postcolonial legacy and complex racial identities, Moon-Child marks a remarkable new addition to the canon of one of the world's most prolific Caribbean playwrights.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMacmillan Publishers
    Release dateJun 24, 2014
    ISBN9781466874442
    Moon-Child: A Play
    Author

    Derek Walcott

    Derek Walcott nació en 1930 en Claistres, capital de la antigua colonia británica de Santa Lucía, una isla en las Pequeñas Antillas. Hijo de un pintor británico que murió cuando él contaba un año de edad y nieto de esclavos, a esta mezcla de culturas hay que añadir que su familia fuera protestante en una comunidad donde predominaba el catolicisimo. Estudió en el University College of the West Indies. Es fundador de Trinidad Theater Workshop, y autor de numerosas obras de teatro y libros de poesía. Entre sus obras traducidas al castellano figuran: Islas, El testamento de Arkansas, La voz del crepúsculo, La abundancia. En cuanto a Omeros, está considerada como su obra maestra y fue galardonada con el premio W. H. Smith. En 1992 le fue concedido el Premio Nobel. Foto © Lisbeth Salas

    Read more from Derek Walcott

    Related to Moon-Child

    Related ebooks

    Performing Arts For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Mountain Time

      Jan 1, 2021

      In the air you don’t know who you are or where My own self feels it is in wind being born These are currents a man made one eighth of smokeless fire fears but chooses A path south from Anchorage to a Mountain House Ungovern the northern land to pass

      10 min read

    • Article

      Reclaiming the Dream

      Mar 23, 2021

      Reclaiming the Dream
      9 min read

    • Article

      Harold Bloom, 1930–2019

      Oct 15, 2019

      Harold Bloom, 1930–2019
      1 min read

    • Article

      Where Is Poetry Now?

      Aug 15, 2018

      Where Is Poetry Now?
      6 min read

    • Article

      An Appreciation Of Julia De Burgos, “Farewell In Welfare Island”

      Jan 1, 2022

      It has to be from here,right this instance,my cry into the world. Life was somewhere forgottenand sought refuge in depths of tearsand sorrowsover this vast empire of solitudeand darkness. Where is the voice of freedom,freedom to laugh,to movewithout

      11 min read

    • Article

      Oceans

      Mar 15, 2019

      I used to be interested in mountains. They moved at a speed I could deal with. They waited for me to catch up. It was like that all my life. Then we moved to California, and after eight years of earthquakes I began to doubt my ability to put things i

      12 min read

    • Article

      “Where Poetry Comes From”

      Sep 1, 2020

      This is what power really is: the privilege of ignoring anything you might find distasteful. —Oksana Zabuzhko “Language, any language,” observed the young poet Oksana Zabuzhko, “is the capital love of my life” because “nothing else has the power to s

      11 min read

    • Article

      Three Poems

      Jan 1, 2022

      I’ve seen enough films where a character nickshimself shaving or maybe has a bread knife slip and the thinrun of blood is supposed to stand for some violence,for something he did and is desperateto cover up, but the truth will out—I’ve seen enough th

      2 min read

    • Article

      The Poetry of Subversion: On ‘Shakespeare in Swahililand’

      Aug 25, 2017

      Shakespeare was often handmaid to the subjugation of people by English colonialists, who used the playwright as evidence of British superiority, while at the same time he was used by people across Africa in their own striving for national self-determ

      7 min read

    • Article

      José Donoso Saw the Future of Latin American Literature

      Nov 21, 2023

      American readers have largely forgotten the single greatest writer to come from the Latin American Boom: Chilean novelist José Donoso. The post José Donoso Saw the Future of Latin American Literature appeared first on The Millions.

      5 min read

    • Article

      from BLACK PASTORAL

      Nov 1, 2023

      somewheres, some lifetimes ago I have run so far, so long.There is nowhere I haven’t beenBut here, in this field, a bodyLength from the ragged brinkThat gives way to forest.I collapsed here, the thin, hard slipOf me whittled at both ends.I want badly

      4 min read

    • Article

      Two Poems

      Jan 1, 2022

      Two Poems
      2 min read

    • Article

      Dread Poets

      Jun 4, 2021

      ‘ All writers go through a Thomas Bernhard phase, sooner or later,” said Geoff Dyer. His authority was offhand but absolute, like the pope telling you where to get the best cannoli. A Thomas Bernhard phase is not hard to spot. First, no paragraphs (o

      1 min read

    • Article

      A Space for Bette Howland

      May 6, 2019

      A Space for Bette Howland
      7 min read

    • Article

      A Year in Reading: Hisham Matar

      Dec 18, 2018

      The fact that this isn’t recognized for what it is, a magisterial work and a 20th-century masterpiece, makes me even more anxious about our times. The post A Year in Reading: Hisham Matar appeared first on The Millions.

      3 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Moon-Child

    3.5/5

    2 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      Moon-Child - Derek Walcott

      I

      PROLOGUE

      [THE MOTHER and WASHERWOMEN, washing by the river stones.]

      THE MOTHER

      If you tell me You lie! you

      can trust me, I’ll understand;

      that man pulling a canoe

      on the cold morning sand

      at Bouton with one hand

      was Alcindor, my husband,

      Soufrière born and bred.

      Is twelve years since he dead.

      His back broad as the laurel,

      we never never quarrel.

      I lie! We quarrel once.

      WASHERWOMEN

      The white stones by the river—

      Every one of them believe her

      THE MOTHER

      A man of good reasoning,

      He leave me with three sons.

      He was my daily bread,

      my salt, my seasoning.

      I miss him as dry season

      in March missing the rain;

      men so don’t come again.

      Everything does pass, even pain.

      In early, early morning

      when the stuttering candle

      of the morning star go out,

      I have so much to handle,

      so much to think about,

      I wish that every bundle

      of washing was his shirt.

      WASHERWOMEN

      The white stones by the river—

      Every one of them believe her.

      [Exit.]

      ONE

      [A full moon over Soufrière. FELIX PROSPÈRE’s cabaret. A corner near the window. NARRATOR enters, sits at a small table.]

      NARRATOR

      Set in a ring of mountains

      in sulphurous blue air,

      a church tower and its fountain’s

      dry mouth say Soufrière.

      When woodsmoke climbs the valley

      and immortelles catch flame,

      blackbirds shoot in a volley

      if you should shout his name.

      [Stands, shouts.]

      Ti-Jean, Ti-Jean, oy!

      TI-JEAN’S VOICE

      [Distant.]

      Ayti?

      Yes?

      NARRATOR

      Ous la’ toujours?

      You still there?

      TI-JEAN

      [Distant.]

      Toujours!

      NARRATOR

      The coiled ear hears the call

      of the sea curled in a

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1