Poet Derek Walcott: Art and Science Share a Common Goal

Derek Walcott (b. 1930) is a St. Lucian poet and artist who in 1992 was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. He is also an Obie-winning playwright, the recipient of a MacArthur “genius” grant, and was knighted in 1972. Walcott’s most famous work is the epic poem Omeros, published in 1990.

“Good science and good art are always about a condition of awe … I don’t think there is any other function for the poet or the scientist in the human tribe but the astonishment of the soul.”

Source: Uncommon Genius: How Great Ideas are Born (Penguin, 1990), pp. 176(via WikiQuote)

Photo credit: “Derek Walcott” by Bert Nienhuis – File of the Werkgroep Caraibische Letteren, The Netherlands. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons.