Jersey Joe Walcott finally become world heavyweight champion, at the relatively old age of 37. This made him the oldest man ever to win the world heavyweight crown (a distinction he would hold until George Foreman won the title at age 45 in 1994). Walcott retained the title with a 15-round decision victory against arch-enemy Charles. On September 23, 1952, he defended his title for the second time. His opponent was the undefeated Rocky Marciano. In the first round Marciano was knocked down for the first time in his career, with a left hook from Walcott. Walcott was clearly ahead in the scoring
Derek Walcott poem "Midsummer" (1984), he wrote: <poem> Forty years gone, in my island childhood, I felt that the gift of poetry had made me one of the chosen, that all experience was kindling to the fire of the Muse.</poem> At 14, Walcott published his first poem, a Miltonic, religious poem, in the newspaper "The Voice of St Lucia". An English Catholic priest condemned the Methodist-inspired poem as blasphemous in a response printed in the newspaper. By 19, Walcott had self-published his first two collections with the aid of his mother, who paid for the printing: "25 Poems" (1948) and "Epitaph for