In “Root Cellar” by Theodore Roethke uses diction, imagery, and tone to display the various layers to the work. He describes smells and sets up visual imagery in the poem to contrast the actual message. The tone in the poem shows the underlying theme of life beneath the moldy cellar itself. Diction in the poem is, by itself, very dark. It easily prompts the reader to recoil at the cellar the speaker is describing. Roethke makes a point to use words with negative connotation to get the full disgusting effect. In writing “Nothing would sleep in that cellar, dank as a ditch,” (Line 1) he immediately prompts the reader into thinking that the poem is serious and negative. The reader assumes from the initial reading of that line that the cellar is inhabitable and just unsavory overall. However, there is no denying that the cellar the speaker is referring to is pleasant in any shape or form. …show more content…
He uses smell to convey just how disgusting the cellar is to the speaker. In lines seven and eight, the speaker describes the plants’ scents as “ripe as old bait” and “rank”. He also uses words like “manure and mildewed”. These words are used to engage the reader, banking on the fact that we all have experienced these smells before. Roethke explains the cellar using this type of language to get across how unpleasant and revolting it is down there. His visual imagery also aids in setting up the scene. Roethke throws similes in the poem to help the reader picture the plants. In using phrases such as “dangled and drooped” and “lolling obscenely” (Lines 4-5) they allow the reader to instantly picture the roots hanging and creeping along in the cellar. Roethke utilizes imagery in a masterful way to where even if the reader has never been in or seen a root cellar, they can imagine what this particular one was
There is a subtle undertone of the presence of destiny as well as hope and rebirth. Though the poem starts out almost eerie, by the end it seems as though the speaker has either grown into themselves or has begun a fresh start. Oliver uses many different metaphors in the poem such as comparing the speaker to a stick and making the swamp seem like a living thing. By using these metaphors combined with vivid imagery Oliver makes the swamp come to life and seem like something more than just a
The poem commences with a debate between the mother and daughter about what they should do with the black walnut tree. Lines 1-15 are written in straightforward, easy to comprehend language. In these lines the speaker addresses why they should sell the tree. The two women give reasons by stating that the tree is growing weak, and given the tree’s proximity to the house, a storm will cause it to collapse into their house and pose a threat to their lives. In addition, the speaker claims that “roots in the cellar drains,” meaning the roots of the tree are getting bigger and spreading into the foundation of the house, thereby producing another danger to the well-being of the family. Moreover, the tree is getting older (“the leaves are getting heavier”), and the walnuts produced by the tree are becoming to gather. The tone of the mother and daughter shows their need for money but also a reluctance to selling the tree; they are desperately in need of money, but they don’t seem to be in favor of selling the tree. Although the reasons provided by the family are credible, they are not wholehearted. This is because the women “talk slowly…...
The first stanza incorporates a lot of imagery and syntax. “A toad the power mower caught,”(line1). The use of syntax in the very first sentence is to catch the reader’s attention and to paint an image for them. The stanza goes on to talk about how the toad hobbles with it’s wounded leg to the edge of the garden, “Under the cineraria leaves”(line4). The speaker uses the word cineraria, which is similar to a cinerarium, a place where the ashes of the deceased are kept. By using this, the speaker further illustrates the death of the toad. “Low and final glade.”(Line6) this line is like a metaphor for the dying toad, the final rest for the toad could be the final glade. In the first stanza it seems as if the speaker is making fun of the dying toad saying the garden sanctuaries him as if he were a person. The opening line even seems a bit humorous to the reader. The following stanzas also have a tone of sarcasm.
First by sight in describing “Walls of Limerick” of course, there are no walls, but the scene is now in place. Then he proceeds with touch “with the damp: clothes never dried” McCourt is slowly bringing the reader into his environment, and with these five words “the damp clothes never dried” describing the constant weather of Limerick, so the reader may envision the environment being described. Next, he uses smell “cigarette and pipe smoke laced with stale fumes of spilled stout and whiskey and tinged with the odor of piss wafting in from the outdoor jakes where many a man puked.” The readers image is now complete. Because McCourt includes extensive sensory details to his imagery the reader can see, feel, smell and some may argue taste, inevitably makes not only this scene relatable to the reader, but exemplifies the continued conditions of the characters living in
When reading a story or a poem, readers tend to analyze, and develop their own opinions. Any content an author or poet produces is up to the reader to question, and identify what the story is trying to say. The point that I am stating is that, stories are like maps that we readers need to figure out. We have to find the starting point, and get to the destination of our conclusion, and the thoughts we have about the story or poem. In the stories that we have read so for throughout the semester, they all have different messages of what they are trying to convey to the reader in a way that can be relatable. Among all the author’s and poet’s works we have read, I have enjoyed Theodore Roethke’s poems. Roethke has developed poems that explore emotions that readers can relate to. I would like to explain and interpret the themes that Theodore Roethke expresses in the poems “My Papa’s Waltz”, “The Waking”, and “I Knew a Woman”.
Roethke’s poem has a regular rhyme scheme that can be expressed as “abab”. The only exception to this scheme would be the first stanza as the words “dizzy” (2) and “easy” (4) are slant rhymes. Only the end syllables of the two words sound the same. As a result, the use of a consistent “abab” rhyme scheme allows the poem to reflect the
Roethke first addresses Jane by describing her, "neck curls, limp and damp as tendrils" to create this positive sense of who Jane is (line 1). In order for one to understand the comparison, we must know that a tendril is a branch of a growing plant. This simile allows to see that just as a plant, the teacher has seen Jane blossom and grow into the strong women she was before dying. The poem goes on to elaborate on the complexity of the tendrils stating how Jane no longer is, "waiting like a fern" out in the field. These two similes tie in well as tendrils are the beginning of life full of ambiance and excitement sprouting high becoming beautiful plants. While, ferns are dead sitting lonely in masses in a field waiting for the coming of a new day. We can see the speaker cares a great deal about Jane by describing such vivid imagery. The complexity of the relationship can further be analyzed showing what a blessing it was to have a passionate young women in the classroom and his life vibrant like a tendril, however, his life is gone and lonely like the ferns which gaze endlessly along the fields. The speaker is finding it unbearable to leave his memories of Jane behind for he truly loves and cares about
Theodore Roethke manipulates our emotions in this poem using literary convention. A Waltz is a lighthearted, easily accessible dance. In a waltz, a couple sways back and forth as they go in a circle. Our emotions of this poem seem to follow this same path as we can see comforting and frightening images at the same time in this poem making us go in circles on whether this poem is about a boy dancing with his father, or a boy fighting his father. An example of this “waltz” we have in this poem is in the first stanza as we get the frightening image of “The whiskey on your breath could make a small boy dizzy” (Line 1-2). Then he follows with “we romped,” thus undercutting the serious tone that we are given from the first stanza; however, the romping is giving seriousness immediately when the pans slide from the kitchen shelves and “The mother’s countenance could not unfrown itself.” Another part that can be taken in either a positive or a negative reading is when the poem reads, “The hand that held my wrist was battered on one knuckle.” This can mean that his father was a hardworking man whose hands are altered from working long hours as a grafter, or this could mean that his hand was battered because it is the same hand being used to beat him. This gives us yet another spin on our emo...
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.
The reader can infer this because stated in the poem Deserted Farmhouse is stated “Where the barn stood / the empty milking stalls rise up / like the skeleton of an ancient sea beast” (Vinz lines 1-3). This shows that the Farmhouse is showing fear because the farmhouse is now like a massive skeleton of a sea beast. The statement give an unpleasant emotion caused by the belief that someone or something is dangerous. Stated in the poem Abandon Farmhouse is “Money was scarce, say the jars of plum preserves / and canned tomatoes sealed in the cellar hole.” (Kooser 13-14). This shows the reader that the setting in the poem was fearful because a dark cellar hole with old jars just gives the reader an odd feeling different from what is usual or expected. Kinda
Therefore, Oliver’s incorporation of imagery, setting, and mood to control the perspective of her own poem, as well as to further build the contrast she establishes through the speaker, serves a critical role in creating the lesson of the work. Oliver’s poem essentially gives the poet an ultimatum; either he can go to the “cave behind all that / jubilation” (10-11) produced by a waterfall to “drip with despair” (14) without disturbing the world with his misery, or, instead, he can mimic the thrush who sings its poetry from a “green branch” (15) on which the “passing foil of the water” (16) gently brushes its feathers. The contrast between these two images is quite pronounced, and the intention of such description is to persuade the audience by setting their mood towards the two poets to match that of the speaker. The most apparent difference between these two depictions is the gracelessness of the first versus the gracefulness of the second. Within the poem’s content, the setting has been skillfully intertwined with both imagery and mood to create an understanding of the two poets, whose surroundings characterize them. The poet stands alone in a cave “to cry aloud for [his] / mistakes” while the thrush shares its beautiful and lovely music with the world (1-2). As such, the overall function of these three elements within the poem is to portray the
Both Snyder and Stone make use of strong concrete images in their poems. In “The Bath” Snyder appeals to almost all of the senses by talking about the “crackle of waterdrops” and “the scent of cedar” and his wife entering the sauna, “letting in cool air.” In “Simplicity” Stone’s intense use of adjectives and figurative language creates strong images in the reader’s mind. She describes her surroundings as “wrinkled skin on a cup of boiled milk” an describes “the water’s muscular flow.”
According to Parini, Jane's death is not the subject of the poem; rather, her death presents an occasion for calling up a certain emotional state in which Roethke's feelings of grief and pity transcend the occasion. Following the standard of elegiac celebration of the vegetation god Adonis reaching back to Bion's Lament for Adonis and Moschus's Lament for Bion, Roethke associates the deceased with elemental aspects of nature--the plant tendrils, the pickerel, the wren--to defuse the pathos of her death. A Romantic poet, Roethke views death as a stage; the plants point to rebirth (138-39). The subject of Roethke's most famous poem (45) becomes the response to Jane's death and his ambivalent emotions at her graveside. Without the associations of earlier elegies, the emotion would surpass the occasion. Roethke mourns not only Jane, whom he knew only slightly, but also the deaths of us all (138-39).
The image developed in the first stanza is especially striking, with its suggestion of once tame and friendly animals who have reverted to wildness and will no longer risk the seemingly innocent taking of bread from the speaker's hand. This stanza establishes at once the theme of change, a change from a special, privileged condition to one of apparent mistrust or fear, and the sense of strangeness (no explanation is given for the change) that will continue to trouble the speaker in the third stanza. Strangeness is inherent in the image itself -- "with naked foot stalking in my chamber" - -- and the stanza is filled with pairs of words that reinforce the idea of contrast: "flee"/"seek," "tame"/"wild," "sometime"/"now," "take break"/"range." Most interestingly, we are never told who "they" are.
The consistent pattern of metrical stresses in this stanza, along with the orderly rhyme scheme, and standard verse structure, reflect the mood of serenity, of humankind in harmony with Nature. It is a fine, hot day, `clear as fire', when the speaker comes to drink at the creek. Birdsong punctuates the still air, like the tinkling of broken glass. However, the term `frail' also suggests vulnerability in the presence of danger, and there are other intimations in this stanza of the drama that is about to unfold. Slithery sibilants, as in the words `glass', `grass' and `moss', hint at the existence of a Serpent in the Garden of Eden. As in a Greek tragedy, the intensity of expression in the poem invokes a proleptic tenseness, as yet unexplained.