The Waking Poem Analysis

Theodore Roethke’s speaks frequently about his life growing up and his experiences created around his greenhouse and nature, which became an important influence in his writing. His poem could possibly be influenced by his father’s death due to cancer and an uncle that committed suicide. Likewise, Dylan Thomas most famous poem was written to share the feelings of his old father. As mentioned in the poem, it was influenced when his father was dying. His father was important to him they shared the same love for writing and he even taught English. While Dylan Thomas “Do Not go Gentle into that Good Night” and “The Waking” by Theodore Roethke both are paradoxical views on how life and death should be approached while keeping a Villanelle form. One

The rhyme scheme in this case is aba aba aba aba aba abaa and it’s what shapes the Villanelle structure. The first and third line of each stanza rhyme for example, in “Do Not go Gentle into that Good Night”, we have the word night, light, right, bright, flight, sight and height. The middle lines rhyming words are day, they, bay, way, gay, and prey. Likewise, in “The Waking”, we have the words slow, go, know, and for the middle lines, there’s fear, ear, near, stair, and air. Another helpful development used is paradoxes, which is a statement that contradicts itself. For example, in Theodore’s poem, a line says “I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow” (1), which is contradicted because how can someone be woken and sleep. “We think by feeling” (4) and “This shaking keeps me steady” (16) are other paradoxes in “The Waking”. On the contrary, in Thomas poem, the paradoxes are “Grave men, near death, who see with bling sight” (13) which is contradicted in talking about a blind sight. Another example is “Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears” (16) which is not understandable how you can be blessed with a