“Sabbaths, W.I.” is a free verse poem, meaning that there is no set meter or rhyming pattern. It illustrates the West Indies (W.I.) from the perspective of someone familiar with the land. The speaker can be read as the poet, as Walcott was born and raised on Saint Lucia, an island in the West Indies. The poem establishes A Sense of Place, on a specific day of the week. The word “Sunday” (Lines 1, 26-29), the day of the sabbath, is repeated six times in the poem. Walcott’s repetition emphasizes the importance of Sundays, and develops the theme of Religion in West Indian Culture.

In the first stanza, Sunday is connected with the “ochre streets” (Line 2) of the villages. The color ochre comes from clay and can be in the yellow, red, or brown range of hues. This highlights how the village streets are not asphalt, as in the “cities” (Line 31), but older and more natural. Ochre has been used as a pigment for hundreds of years, long before modern highways were created.

In the second stanza, the speaker develops this

Don't Miss Out!

Access Study Guide Now