LVI |
I. Walcott walks
out on a hotel balcony and has a vision of the shape-shifting Omeros/Seven Seas as a bust. |
| Il. Walcott
follows Omeros in a vision and feels his own wound heal. |
| Ill. He talks
with Omeros about seeing him London, not reading all of The Odyssey, and war and
sex. |
| LVII |
I. Omeros and
Walcott begin their descent into Hell. Omeros (and Walcott) offer poetic praise for
St. Lucia. |
| Il. They speak
with the ferryman. |
| Ill. They look on
the fleets from the Battle of the Saints. |
| LVIII |
I. They look on
the damned souls in the Malebolge/Pool of Speculation -- traitors who sold land, office,
or casinos. |
| Il. Omeros/Seven
Seas tells him that the real journey is inward and motionless They see Hector in a
hell/purgatory of his own making, as well as Bennet & Ward. |
| Ill. Walcott
discusses his own lack of faith as they look on the poets in hell. The vision ends. |
| LIX |
I. Walcott
reflects that Philoctete and he had the same wound and cure. The sea forgets epics. |
| Il. "History
has simplified" Achille and St. Lucia, yet history is itself simplified by the sea.
An invocation is offered to the Sun. |
| Ill. The rage of
Achille--he is angry at tourists for taking pictures of tired fishermen after a long day. |
| LX |
I. Seven Seas
predicts the destruction of humanity, and Achille and Philoctete go in search of a new
home. |
| Il. Achille and
Philoctete spend the night on the beach. |
| Ill. They
encounter a god-like whale. |
| LXI |
I. Plunkett
remembers refusing to take Maud's virginity before marriage, as he allows Ma Kilman to
look for Maud in the spirit world. |
| Il. Plunkett
encounters Maud's spirit in the doorway. |
| Ill. His wound is
also healed and he gives up his project of history. |
| LXII |
I. Seven Seas
hears/sees the island, especially the spiritual blindness of the tourists. |
| Il. Walcott
recognizes the problem of seeing Helen as a classical Greek figure. The remains of
the Battle of Saintes are all buried in history. |
| Ill. Children in
school learn yet ignore history. |
| LXIII |
I. Ma Kilman's
niece, Christine, is another Helen, Seven Seas tells about the trouble Statics
encounters when he takes up with a Cherokee woman in Florida. |
| Il. Achille wants
to name Helen's child after Hector. "We'll all heal." |
| Ill. The Old and
New World are interlocked for Walcott in the sign of the swift. |
| LXIV |
I. Walcott's
final invocation: "I sang of quiet Achille, Afolabe's son." |
| Il. Helen is a
waitress and African, not a classical Greek story. |
| Ill. Achille at
work with the "sea still going on." |