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Literature analysis of Theodore Roethke poetry
Literature analysis of Theodore Roethke poetry
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Theodore Roethke Didn’t Know He’d be a Poet
Born in Saginaw Michigan in 1908, Theodore Roethke grew up in his parent’s home, which was built in 1911 for his parents Helen and Otto Roethke. (Theodore Roethke) This was a family estate with Theodore’s Uncle, Carl living on property as well. (Theodore Roethke) The family was in the flower business and Theodore spent many a day in the greenhouse. This is the source of many of his poems, along with his childhood experiences. Roethke is credited with saying the greenhouse, “is my symbol for the whole of life, a womb, a heaven-on-earth” (Theodore Roethke) Theodore Roethke went to school at John Moore Elementary School, and attended Arthur Hill High School, both in Saginaw Michigan. (Theodore
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This poem is has alliteration in it. Alliteration is found in the following passages of the poem; “Sustenance seemed sensible”, “dumb dames”, and “breathing booze”. (The Geranium Selected) This poem is about a man who is dying maybe. While this man is dying, dying along with him is his plant geranium. These two lives are running parallel with each other, parallel straight down. Age is a theme in this poem, as could the idea of starting anew, from these lines in the poem “Threw her, pot and all, into the trash-can” and “For a new routine”. (The Geranium …show more content…
The poem is obviously about a student that dies by horseback, and the teacher is the speaker of the poem. A theme in the poem is birds. Not just birds, but gray, plain birds, if there ever was such a thing. Obviously Jane was not the most attractive girl in the class, if a teacher would have such thoughts, but the qualities of Jane the teacher speaks of, would assume that he was quite fond of her and her ways, as only a teacher, or parent could probably be. It appears that Roethke was treading the fine line between student and teacher. It also appears that Roethke was testing the boundaries of what is an acceptable relationship between a student and a teacher. It seems that the teacher had romantic thoughts about Jane, but never acted on them. This appears so by lines nineteen and twenty of the poem. They read as follows; “Over this damp grave I speak the words of my love” and “I, with no rights in this matter” (Elegy for Jane). It appears that this love was innocent but out of place, due to the student teacher relationship and also Jane's age, more likely than not. Line twenty shows that the teacher had made his peace, not only with the death of Jane, but also the fact that dead or alive he could never actually, physically lover
Ross-Bryant, Lynn. Theodore Roethke: Poetry of the Earth . . . Poet of the Spirit. Port Washington, N.Y.: Kennikat, 1981.
Munro, Alice. Interview with Graeme Gibson. ìAn Interview with Munro on Writing.î The Bedford Introduction to Literature. 6th ed. Ed. Michael Meyer. Boston: Bedford/St. Martinís, 2002. 484-486.
Academy of American Poets, n.d. Web. The Web. The Web. 03 Feb. 2014. 2.
Ted Kooser was born in Ames, Iowa, an area within the great plains of America. He credits his influences to both his mother and his father. His father worked as a store manager while his mother stayed home to raise him and his sister. During an interview he was asked how his parents influenced his poetry, he replied, "My Father was a storekeeper, loved the public, and was a marvelous storyteller. I remember a women once said to me that she'd rather hear my dad describe a person than see the person herself." (Meats, 335). One can tell from reading Kooser's poetry that his father influenced him greatly. Ted Kooser also attained a strong work ethic from his father, which in his formative years allowed him to prosper and become the poet he is today. His mother influenced his appreciation for the natural wonders in life. Kooser attended Iowa State University, where he earned a bachelor of science degree in 1962. Upon graduating, he held a teaching job as an English teacher in Madrid, Iowa during the 1962-1963 school year. He soon moved to Lincoln, Nebraska where he was accepted into the University of Nebraska's at Lincoln graduate program for creative writing. He would not immediately graduate from the program, but take a job in the insurance industry where during his tenure, he would become the Vice President for Lincoln Benefit Life.
Roethke uses imagery and diction that makes the reader feel different emotions. The imagery of a father with whiskey on his breath and battered knuckles paints a picture of a scruffy, rugged man. On the other hand, the diction and imagery of “waltzing” in line 4 creates a soft and sweet image of a father and child dancing. The image of “My right ear scraped a buckle / You beat
Meinke, Peter. “Untitled” Poetry: An Introduction. Ed. Michael Meyer. 6th ed. Boston: Bedford/ St. Martin’s 2010. 89. Print
...thern Literary Journal. Published by: University of North Carolina Press. Vol. 4, No. 2 (spring, 1972), pp. 128-132.
The author somewhat implicates feelings of resentment fused with a loving reliance with his father. For example, the first two lines of the poem read: "The whiskey on your breath/ Could make a small boy dizzy;" (Roethke 668). This excerpt appears to set a dark sort of mood for the entire rest of the poem. By the first two lines, the reader may already see how this man feels about his father's drunkenness. It seems as if Roethke has preceded his poem with this factor in order to demonstrate the resentment that he feels toward his father.
Depending on the experience of the reader, they can either be disturbed by these words or be drawn in closer to the poem. Theodore Roethke loved his father. Not only did he love him, but he idolized him and unfortunately lost him at an early age. This poem is a reflective memorial waltz written in iambic trimeter to honor his father and
Ramazani, Jahan, Richard Ellmann, and Robert O 'Clair. The Norton Anthology of Modern and Contemporary Poetry. New York: W.W. Norton, 2003. Print.
Theodore Roethke's history is significant to the tone and subject matter of his poetry. A poet of the Midwest, he combines a love of the land with his vision of the development of the individual. Roethke is often described as a confessional poet because of his use of modernist techniques to explore his psychology and life (Dunn). Many of his most successful poems are lyrical memories of his childhood. "My Papa's Waltz," is one such account. Theodore's father owned and operated greenhouses, and Theodore spent a great deal of time there in his youth. Many of his memories of these times became the subject of his writings. However, the poet's adolescent years were jarred by the death of his father from cancer in 1923, a loss that would powerfully shape Roethke's psychic and creative life. (Kalaidjian)
Lipking, Lawrence I, Stephen Greenblatt, and M H. Abrams. The Norton Anthology of English Literature: Volume 1c. New York: W.W. Norton & Co, 2006. Print.
His poetry, however, served as an outlet to show his true colors. Roethke’s poem “I Knew a Woman” uses great imagery in his words describing an astonishing
Damrosch, David. Longman anthology of British literature. 2nd ed. Vol. A. New York: Longman, 2004. Print.
Print. The. The Poetry of William Wordsworth. SIRS Renaissance 20 May 2004: n.p. SIRS Renaissance.