(Walcott 1998, p. 64)

This "new world" that Walcott enters is made possible by his power of reimagining the meaning of the past, which, like grace, allows him to let go of the need for balancing the scales of justice. It might be enough to say that his poetics makes grace and imagination synonymous. Novelty, in this way, becomes a gift of accepting one's inheritance without being determined by it. This "new world" is both a continuation of the old and a ye<sup>t</sup> a vital departure from its devastating impact. In theological terms, we might say that this o ffers a conception of heaven that is not so much an escape from the conditions of this life but a transformation of their meaning.
