The Curse of the Orange Tree and the Artist "In a Green Night" by Derek Walcott is a poem about the contradictory feelings of life. “In a Green Night” focuses on the ever-present threat of death and how our lives revolve around the inevitability of death. Through metaphors, paradoxes, and repetition, Walcott illustrates the despair and glory that comes when an artist realizes that, in his quest to create the perfect work of art, he ultimately draws closer to death - just as an orange tree approaches death as it produces its magnificent fruit. The key to “In a Green Night” lies in the metaphor Walcott uses; human thought and creativity are compared to an aging orange tree. An orange tree produces oranges just as an artist produces art. Both living beings are in immediate danger of losing their lives without producing anything meaningful. The life of an orange tree can be short-lived, with few opportunities to produce its beloved fruit. The life of an artist can follow this same path; the artist may have very little time to produce his own masterpiece. As the orange tree and the artist reach their prime, they also begin to die. Walcott uses this metaphor wonderfully, without ever directly comparing the two objects. The second device Walcott uses in “In a Green Night” is paradox. A paradox is a statement that at first seems contradictory or absurd, but turns out to be perfectly logical. The first place Walcott uses a paradox is in the title of the poem. “In a Green Night” seems to contradict itself. Nights are usually described as "dark" or "obscure", or they often even symbolize death. By using the word "green", Walcott makes a very bold statement...... middle of paper ...... fables published now/That his summer height of last season/Bends from each overburdened branch" (1-4) A fable is a short story that illustrates a moral principle of human behavior. The tree tells a fable, using its overburdened branches to represent how producing art can be a burden on an artist. These first lines introduce the fable, while the last lines tell the moral of the story - creating the ultimate paradox The second line of the stanza says: "Proclaim the fable is perfect now" (30). perfectly shows his connection with humans through the sad story of his doomed life" In a Green Night" by Derek Walcott is a poem that seems simple on the outside. Through metaphors, paradoxes and repetitions, the poem tells a fable. The poem tells the fable of an artist burdened with his ability to think and create which becomes both his downfall and his glory.