The Arkansas Testament

I gave this volume to a friend who had no experience of reading poetry (since school, that is), and had asked me what sort of poems he could start with. I pointed out a couple of poems that I thought were highlights, and wished him good luck. When I met up with him a week later, he burst into excited praise for the book. He'd started on the poems I had suggested, and rapidly proceeded to read the whole collection, several times over. I quite agree with his response - in my early 20s this was one of the books that got me excited in contemporary poets and poetry. While Walcott is not foremost an experimentalist - and he might at odd moments almost be thought a sentimentalist - his sheer joy of craft and wordsmithing is a beautiful, beautiful thing to behold. This book is one of those things that can remind you why life is worth living. It's that good.