Goats And Monkeys poem by Derek Walcott ( Notes)

 Goats And Monkeys is the rewriting of Shakespeare's play Othello in poetic form. It talks about the doomed love story between Othello and Desdemona. It is written by a Saint Lucian poet , playwright and professor Derek Walcott.

About Poet- 

Sir Derek Alton Walcott was born in 1930 in an island country of the West Indies. He won Noble Prize in Literature in 1992 . He recieve several awards in his literary career for his extraordinary writings. His family was of English, Dutch, African descent which is reflected in his works. The common themes in his poetry are Carribbean culture and history, effect of colonialism and individuals relationship with language. 

       

Poem- 

‘...even now, an old black ram 

is tupping your white ewe.’ 

                     - Othello 

These lines are taken from Act 1, Scene 1 'Othello' play by Shakespeare. These lines are spoken by Iago to Desdemona's father. Iago complains of black man copulating with a white woman. 

Line 1-8

"The owl’s torches gutter. Chaos clouds the globe.  

Shriek, augury! His earthen bulk 

buries her bosom in its slow eclipse. 

His smoky hand has charred 

that marble throat. Bent to her lips, 

he is Africa, a vast, sidling shadow 

that halves your world with doubt. 

‘Put out the light’, and God’s light is put out"  

-Poem starts with very disturbing scene. Chaos envelopes the world like night engulfing the sky. There are strange noises of omen. Othello's body is compared to earthen bulk which descends over Desdemona's moon like body. It is compared to the lunar  eclipse when Earth shadows Moon. It gives the image of something terrible happening. Othello has black burnt hands which touches the marble like white neck of Desdemona.  He is represented as a symbol for Africa. His love making with Desdemona divides the world into two halves. There are different sects of people supporting and opposing this inter racial coupling. This union is seen as very unnatural, ' God's light is put out' it is seen against the will of God. 

 Line:9-12 

"That flame extinct, she contemplates her dream

of him as huge as night, as bodiless,

as starred with medals, like the moon

a fable of blind stone" 

In the dark room, Desdemona contemplate her fantasy of Othello about love making. Othello is described as a mythical figure about whom is craved on the stones. 

Lines:13-18 

Dazzled by that bull’s bulk against the sun

of Cyprus, couldn’t she have known

like Pasiphae, poor girl, she’d breed horned monsters?

That like Eurydice, her flesh a flare

travelling the hellish labyrinth of his mind

his soul would swallow hers? 

Desdemona was dazzled by the military reputation of Othello in Cyprus. Why she couldn't think about Pasiphae? Didn't she knew that by choosing this union, she ignored the warnings given in Greek mythologies about the union of Pasiphae and Eurdyice. Their love making resulted in the birth of monstrous children and they were dragged into hell because of it. Why can't Desdemona cons of inter-racial mating? 

Lines 19- 24

Her white flesh rhymes with night. She climbs, secure.

Virgin and ape, maid and malevolent Moor,

their immortal coupling still halves our world.

He is your sacrificial beast, bellowing, goaded,

a black bull snarled in ribbons of its blood.

White body of Desdemona is under the night like dark body of Othello. Several derogatory terms are used for their love making which divides the world into two halves. Othello is described as a sacrificial being of racial prejudice. He can be provoked to anger very easily like a bull goaded by red ribbon. 

Lines 25- 32

And yet, whatever fury girded

on the saffron-sunset turban, moon-shaped sword

was not his racial, panther-black revenge

pulsing her chamber with its raw musk, its sweat

but horror of the moon’s change,

of the corruption of an absolute, 

like a white fruit

pulped ripe by fondling but doubly sweet. 

Whatever anger circles him was not his saffron sunset turban also it is not because of racial segregation. The anger is out of male fear of assumption of woman's change or corruption of her virginal purity. 

Lines 33-41

And so he barbarously arraigns the moon

for all she has beheld since time began

for his own night-long lechery, ambition,

while barren innocence whimpers for pardon.

And it is still the moon, she silvers love,

limns lechery and stares at our disgrace.

Only annihilation can resolve

the pure corruption in her dreaming face.

It was his male anger and jealousy which makes him behave like a barbarous animal. This is seen as an animalistic nature of dark skinned people rather than men nature witnessed over centuries by moon. 

Lines 42- 52

A bestial, comic agony. We harden

with mockery at this blackamoor

who turns his back on her, who kills

what, like the clear moon, cannot abhor

her element, night; his grief

farcially knotted in a handkerchief

a sibyl’s

prophetically stitched remembrancer

webbed and embroidered with the zodiac,

this mythical, horned beast who’s no more

monstrous for being black. 

This murder of Desdemona is described as domestic violence rather than a heinous crime. World see this men nature as a reaction of racialised black man. He has foolishly committed this crime