“Over every mountain there is a path, although it may not be seen from the valley” ("Theodore Roethke Quotes."). This quote by Theodore Roethke demonstrates his persistence and his determined mindset that helped Roethke throughout his difficult life. Theodore Roethke did not grow up expecting to become a major American poet. He intended to become a lawyer, however during college Roethke discovered that being a lawyer was not the right profession for him. It was at this time that he came to realize his love for poetry. Roethke wrote many of his poems based on past experiences such as “Child on Top of a Greenhouse” which is based on his childhood experiences. Theodore Roethke, both an emotional and philosophical poet, was influenced by many other poets and his own past experiences in order to develop his poems which shared many ideas on the significance of life.
Theodore Roethke was an American poet whose lifetime experiences influenced many of his poetic works. Theodore Roethke was born on May 25, 1908 in Saginaw, Michigan, United States. Roethke stayed in Michigan for his childhood and college years. He died on August 01, 1963 in Bainbridge Isle, Washington, United States (“Theodore Roethke.” Contemporary). Roethke lived in recent times and this is reflected in his contemporary poems which use modern language and linguistic devices. Roethke lived in Michigan until after attending the University of Michigan. After going to college at the University of Michigan, Roethke attended Harvard University, located in Massachusetts. Roethke planned on becoming a lawyer; however during college, Roethke discovered his deep admiration for poetry. Roethke’s career as a poet initially struggled and it wasn’t until 1953 that Roethke finally receiv...
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...is father brought to small town Michigan. Matt Forster, a biographer, states that “Much of Roethke’s poetry would draw on the imagery of his childhood, such as the landscapes of Michigan, the dirt and roots he remembered from working in the nursery, and memories of his father (Forster 2005).” Roethke wrote about his childhood throughout his literary career, and his poems reflect small town life in Michigan and the important people with whom he was surrounded during his childhood and adolescence.
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).
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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.
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.
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