Dark August' by Derek Walcott

So much rain, so much life like the swollen sky

of this black August. My sister, the sun,

broods in her yellow room and won't come out.

Everything goes to hell; the mountains fume

like a kettle, rivers overrun; still,

she will not rise and turn off the rain.

She is in her room, fondling old things,

my poems, turning her album. Even if thunder falls

like a crash of plates from the sky,

she does not come out.

Don't you know I love you but am hopeless

at fixing the rain ? But I am learning slowly

to love the dark days, the steaming hills,

the air with gossiping mosquitoes,

and to sip the medicine of bitterness,

so that when you emerge, my sister,

parting the beads of the rain,

with your forehead of flowers and eyes of forgiveness,

all with not be as it was, but it will be true

(you see they will not let me love

as I want), because, my sister, then

I would have learnt to love black days like bright ones,

The black rain, the white hills, when once

I loved only my happiness and you. 

Dark August’ by Derek Walcott is an eight-stanza poem which is separated into sets of three lines, also known as tercets. The poem is written in free verse with no rhyme scheme. ‘.The tone of the first half poem is melancholic but in the second half, the tone changes to hopefulness. According to Derek Walcott, the rain symbolizes the dark and sad days of his life and sun as the happy days.

In the first stanza, the poet paints a picture of dull dark earth with swollen sky due to the unstoppable rain which has made the day gloomy. The poet compares the rain to the sadness and dullness of life. He calls Sun as his sister who is not ready to come out of her bright and yellow room to share some sunshine with the poet.

In the next stanza poet further describes how dull the earth has turned into that everything is chaotic, the mountain is fuming like a kettle and because of the heavy rain, the river is overflowing but still, the sun that is the poet’s sister is not ready to come out and turn off the rain.

In the third and fourth stanza, the poet imagines and tell the reader where the sun is been hiding. He says she is in her bright yellow room reminiscing, looking at her old things or reading the poem written by the poet or maybe even checking out old albums. The poet is so frustrated by her that he decides even though the thunder breaks the sky into pieces still she wouldn’t come out.

He asks his sister (sun) doesn’t she know how much he loves her? But at the same time, he accepts the fact that even though he wants to stop the rain he cannot because it's not in his power. But he is learning slowly.

In the fifth stanza, he explains what he has started learning. He says that finally he is getting used to the dark days, he has started loving the streaming hills, the noisy mosquitos and also the bitter medicine that he is supposed to sip because of the continued rain. 

In the sixth, seventh and eighth stanzas he explains that at this point in his life he has come to terms with the way the world is. Now the poet is getting used to loving rain and he warns his sister (sun) that if she now emerges out drying the rain droplets with her forgiveness everything won’t be the same for her as it was once before because he has been forced to change himself because of the circumstances and now he loves the black rainy days as he loves the bright sunny days. 

Metaphorically poet Derek Walcott is trying to tell the readers that we need to learn to love our life as it comes and should not crib for things which are not in our hands. According to him, the dark rainy days are the sadness of life and the bright sunny days are the happiest. But when we are sad we should not crib for happiness as it comes whenever it has to. So we might as well live life as it comes and balances it without expectation.