The Caribbean epic. Walcott's Homeric reworking of the Iliad and Odyssey in the context of St. Lucia's fishermen, their colonial history, and the poet's own divided heritage (African and European). A 325-page poem in terza rima that competes directly with its classical models and wins on its own terms. Nobel Prize 1992. Walcott spent his entire career asking what poetry could be made from the wreckage of colonialism; Omeros is his answer.

The case for it, the case against, and the rest of the canon open with Pro.