Muse Of history. Why does Walcott argue that there is no forgiveness or pardon to offer the past?How can one give "strange and bitter and yet...

As someone from the Caribbean who studies Walcott at the University level, I can tell you that Walcott is saying that for those of us in the Caribbbean, In the Antilles, the past is something to build on. The past is bitter in that slavery and indentureshio and what-not was horrific and traumatizing to both slaves and slave masters - to both Europeans and those whom they subordinated and brutalized. The past is a bittersweet thing for Caribbean peoples because had it not been for the event of New World building, for the process of Creolization in the Caribbean, its inhabitants would still be living in Africa, Asia, Europe ect. And if you ask any Caribbean person, most (not all) would say that they are thankful that they live here and not in the land of their ancestors. Walcott himself, being half 'black' and half 'white' is the epitome of this bittersweet taste of history. Had it not been for thise struggles, he would not exist.

Enobling thanks - the Europeans gave those in the Caribbean something to build on. That is, its literature. Walcott uses Classical lit to subvert imperialism. You sould read his other essays and "the Prodogal" for clarification.

There is no forgivness or pardon for the past - He os not saying this. Instead, he says that to fix your gaze on the past, expecting and waiting for that forgiveness is to live in stasis. That is what he means by 'Medusa of History'. The Greek myth has it that who looks at the Medusa would turn forever to stone. Who looks upon and contemplates History for too long is turned into a stasis state from which there is no escape, no progress. Walcott says EMBRACE the AMNESIA of history; emprace the fragments of our epic memory and build on it because history is not a myth. We can't make stories out of it and perpetuate thise stories as real. The simple truth is that on the crossing from the old and into the New World, somethings were forgotten. MEMORY is not wholly reliable and that is all those who have crossed over, have to offer their decendents.