Oddjob, A Bull Terrier
Derek Walcott
“You prepare for one sorrow,
but another comes.
It is not like the weather, …”
(Full poem unable to be reproduced due to copyright)
VOCABULARY
Seaward - towards the sea.
To muse - to think deeply and philosophically about something.
Oleanders - poisonous plants, a type of shrub or small tree which often displays
bright pink flowers.
Whimper - a sad cry, as if in pain or hurt.
Blest - an old-fashioned spelling of ‘blessed’.
STORY/SUMMARY
Stanza 1: You prepare yourself for coping with something sad, but then a different
sad thing happens instead. It’s not like the weather, you can’t prepare for it, you’re just
unready. Your companion, the woman, the friend next to you, the child at your side,
and the dog - we feel strongly for them, we look out to sea and think of them and
about how it will rain, how a sad day will come when they are no longer around. We
shall get ready for the time when it rains when the sad separation happens; the way
that the sun affects the darkening oleander plants in the sea-garden, the way the
golden colour fades from the palm trees, the flecks of rain on your skin - you do not
connect all of these things with the dog’s whimper, thunder isn’t frightening, you are
ready; the thing that follows you around at your feet (the dog) is trying to tell you that
silence is everything, it is deeper than readiness, it is as deep as the sea, like the
earth, as love.
, Stanza 2: The silence is stronger than thunder, we are speechless and deep as the
animals who never speak of love as we do, except this feeling becomes
unexplainable, we cannot express it with words and instead it must be said in a
whimper, in tears, in the rain that appears in our eyes, not saying the name of the
loved thing, the silence of the dead, the silence of the deepest buried love is the one
true, deep silence and whether we are silent in this way for a child, a woman, or a
friend, this silence represents one deep love, it is the same feeling regardless of the
reason we express it and it is blessed, the deepest kind of silence is the one we
experience after the loss of something we love, this kind of silence is blessed, it is
blessed.
SPEAKER/VOICE
The speaker of this poem takes on a kind of omniscient perspective, he is not
speaking specifically about a single person or moment, but instead, about the human
condition - the way in which we grieve for the things we loved that are now lost, be
they friends, women, children or pets. He observes that sometimes emotions cannot
be explained with words, instead, they are expressed through gestures such as tears
and through a kind of deep, holy, spiritual silence that shows the utmost respect and
love for the thing that has been lost. This wider perspective contrasts with the title of
the poem: ‘Oddjob, A Bull Terrier’ which names a specific pet that must have
belonged to Walcott at a certain point in his life. We can then read this poem as a way
to understand the grieving process for the loss of a loved one, but also as a personal
remembrance of Walcott’s lost companion.
LANGUAGE
Visual image - ‘we look seaward and muse’ - this line creates a visual image of the
poet sitting and looking out to sea, lost in contemplative thought and his own memories
and reflections of his dog.
- ‘the sunlight altering/the darkening oleanders/ in the sea-garden, / the gold going out
of the palms.’ - these tumbling visual images capture the beauty of the Caribbean
landscape, but also present images of transition and change - the way in which the
‘gold’ colour leaves the palms as the seasons’ progress, or the way in which ‘sunlight’
