Poverty

It is wrong to dwell on poverty in an attempt to romanticise it. It is wrong to sentimentalize poverty. But that does not mean it is impossible to find beauties in the condition of poverty. The fact that poverty was once a desirable condition in intellectual circles should make one suspicious. Thomas a Becket was made a saint for his fleas and their meaning. That became a romantic poverty. Walcott celebrates that life which has no concern with the monumental. His work has become its monument. That is a paradox. One cannot escape such things. To refuse to see beauty in poverty is also sentimental and romantic. We must risk the monumental.