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

poem discusses that life should be taken slowly so that we are able to enjoy it because fate is inevitable and the second poem stresses that instead of accepting death we should fight it every step of the way.
In the pair of poems, a unique poetic form is created called Villanelle. A Villanelle is a nineteen-line poem with five tercets and a quatrain using two refrains What’s so unique about both poems being Villanelle is that they come with a pair of rhyming lines. It’s important to understand the refrains are the first and third line of the first tercet, which is repeated throughout the stanzas, especially the last stanza known as the quatrain. These rhyming lines are the heart of the meaning behind the poem. Theodore’s heart of the poem is “I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow” (1) and “I learn by going where I have to go” (3). These two lines sum up the ending and it leaves a strong message of what the poem is about. Like in Thomas poem the refrains are “Do not go gentle into that good night” (1) and “Rage, rage against the dying of the light” (3).
These authors throughout their poems recognize that there are two ways life and death should be approached. In “The Waking” by Theodore states, “I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow. I feel my fate in what I cannot fear. I learn by going where I have to go” (1-3). The view in this poem says from the moment you wake up you should take life slowly and not live in fear of fate. Fate, in this case, represents how death is inevitable because everyone dies at some point, it’s a life cycle. By taking life slowly day by day you learn a lot and you are able to enjoy a life lived to the fullest. On the other hand, Thomas claims “Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray. Do not go gentle into that good night. Rage, rage against the dying of the light” (17-19). What’s contradicting here from Theodore’s poem is that death is inevitable, rather than simply accepting your end, we should fight it so we can make the most of our life. What is the reason these two authors’ views are paradoxical?
What makes these authors’ feel different views on the same subject, depends on how fulfilled they feel about their life. In “The Waking” the speaker gives the sensation when he is saying, “I wake to sleep, and take me waking slow” that he is awake physically, mentally, and emotionally. He seems to have a fulfilled life and feel accomplished. Conversely, Thomas poem says, “Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay” which gives us the sense that the reason why he believes he should fight death is because there’s still actions to be taken that can’t be achieved once dead. He perhaps wants to fight death because he still need to make a mark on the work that doesn’t able him to accept his fate like Theodore poem represents.
To help develop the poetic form of the Villanelle the authors use a specific rhyme scheme showing rhyming lines.

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

curse.
In conclusion, if you were on your death bed which point of view would you take. Would you fight or just accept death? Taking in consideration the time you have had, the age of someone, and weather or not you have accomplished anything in life. Id live a life of both views because not everyone is comfortable with the taught of death, but we know its coming. Death is inevitable. I do believe that to live a full and happy life you shouldn’t think of an end, but if I were feeling empty id fight it. Not having a mark on the world means you haven’t lived life to its fullest, so id like to fight to stay on earth and make a different and have a purpose. Its all depending on fate, I believe our futures are destined. Therefore, we should live our life to the fullest by fighting for what we want and talking every day slowly to enjoy our surroundings.