Tiepolo's Hound
By Derek Walcott
Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 164pp, illustrations, cloth, $30.

from Tiepolo's Hound:

They have designed their faith, with leonine
locks, some shaggy with rust, till, in repose,

banners and beards are one in their design,
figures not Veronese's or Tiepolo's.

They have not seen Dürer's panels: Four Apostles,
not the Moorish princes of the Renaissance,

they echo a blue altarpiece in their postures,
one turbaned soldier with a bamboo lance.

On the beach a young tourist with her head inclined
towards an infant she cradles in her arms

is a Fra Angelico in a blue wraparound, as the wind
begins the incantations of pliable palms;

everywhere a craft confirming images,
from a nosing mongrel to a challenging ceiling

of cloud. The mind raised on mirages
sees my father's copy of storm gulls wheeling.

With Tiepolo's Hound, Nobel-laureate Derek Walcott returns to the lyrical fusion of poetry and novel that made 1990's Omeros such a masterpiece. In this newest work, however, mythical allusions give way to art history and biography in a densely written journey of two Caribbean men and their art.

Walcott introduces the reader to Camille Pissarro, the famed Impressionist painter self-exiled from his native St. Thomas, and traces his development as an artist in his adopted Europe. At the same time, Walcott weaves a parallel thread of his own story as poet, painter and critic of imperialism, lamenting that art has immortalized Paris while much of the Caribbean remains unpainted. The text is rich and masterful, packed with references to the art world and truly evocative of a writer's canvas--in fact, Walcott's own fine paintings are interspersed throughout the book.

The poems in this extended tale are lovely, full of color and a subtle rhyme. But, the frequent art terminology makes the book's language rather obtuse at times. As a result, many readers will get bogged down by less well-known allusions and terms, and may therefore feel distanced from the poetry and the characters. Still, Tiepolo's Hound is worth a look for Walcott fans, art buffs, and anyone interested in fine writing.

Recommended.
Reviewed by Zarina Mullan Plath