Nobel laureate Derek Walcott dies at age 87

Derek Walcott, a Nobel prizewinning poet known for capturing the essence of his native Caribbean, died Friday on the island of St. Lucia. He was 87.

“Derek Alton Walcott, poet, playwright, and painter died peacefully today, Friday 17th March, 2017, at his home in Cap Estate, Saint Lucia,’’ said a family statement. It said the funeral would be held in St. Lucia and details would be announced shortly.

The prolific and versatile poet received the Nobel Prize in literature in 1992. The academy cited the “great luminosity’’ of his writings including the 1990 “Omeros,’’ a 64-chapter Caribbean epic that it praised as “majestic.’’

“In him, West Indian culture has found its great poet,’’ the Swedish academy said in awarding the $1.2 million prize to Walcott.

St. Lucia Prime Minister Allen Chastanet said flags throughout the island would be lowered to half-staff to honour Walcott, one of the most renowned figures to emerge from the small country.

“It is a great loss to Saint Lucia,’’ he said. “It is a great loss to the world.’’

Walcott, who was of African, Dutch and English ancestry, said his writing reflected the “very rich and complicated experience’’ of life in the Caribbean. His dazzling, painterly work earned him a reputation as one of the greatest writers of the second half of the 20th century.

With passions ranging from watercolour painting to teaching to theatre, Walcott’s work was widely praised for its depth and bold use of metaphor, and its mix of sensuousness and technical prowess. He compared his feeling for poetry to a religious avocation.