In the poem XIV, by Derek Walcott, the speaker describes a time when was able to visit

an elderly woman storyteller he used to see as a child and recalls memories and her influences. In

the poem, Walcott uses juxtaposition, vivid imagery, and personification to convey the speaker’s

appreciation of the experience.

The speaker sets the primary mood of the poem with the opening line, “With the frenzy

of an old snake shedding its skin.” He uses the threatening connotation created by the image of

“snake shedding its skin” and the rushed and the disorderly feeling of a “frenzy” to create a dark

mood and personify the “speckled road” that is the route to the storyteller’s home. The speaker

continues to elaborate on this vision by describing the imagery more vividly, reporting that the

road is “scored with ruts, smelling of mold,” forming an ominous feeling that makes the reader

wonder what lies ahead as the road “twisted on itself and reentered the forest.” As the speaker

nears the home where the “folk stories begin” the mood begins to change.

The shift occurs when the speaker describes the sight of the neighborhood: “lucent as

paper lanterns, lamplight glowed through the ribs, house after house.” This imagery in the

second half of the poem is juxtaposed with the beginning because the mood shifts from dark and

dangerous to warm and nostalgic. The speaker continues to personify his surroundings like the

“ribs” of the house and “the shutters closing like the eyelids of that mimosa called Ti-Marie”

which makes the environment sound like it is a living person that the speaker is walking into.

This metaphor for the neighborhood and the woman’s house shows how the speaker views the

experience as something that still lives on. The description of this living environment

compounded with the praise that the speaker gives the storyteller shows his appreciation of the

experience, thus how significant it was for him.

 The speaker describes the storyteller, Sidone, as the “lamplight in the stare of two

mesmerized boys.” This description shows that she was the bright spot in the boys’ lives and

continues on to say that the experiences she gave them have made them “indivisible twins.” The

stories that Sidone shared with the speaker and his brother have created a strong emotional bond

between them that has continued to last to this point of recollection. This experience still

influences the speaker as he reveals that “her voice travels my shelves,” assuming that the

speaker is Walcott, this tells the reader that the storyteller has influenced Walcott’s career as a

writer. This elaborates more on how the experience is significant to him because it has had a

continuous impact on his life.