Root Cellar Theodore Roethke Summary

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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

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