Theodore Roethke The Waking Poem

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Theodore Roethke 's "The Waking," is a villanelle, and is made up of five tercets and a quatrain. This villanelle is made up of only two rhyme schemes, two lines of the first stanza alternate repeating with the last line of each tercet and are joined together in the ending quatrain. The two most important lines of the poem are "I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow” (Roethke 1) and "I learn by going where I have to go”(3) These two lines create the meaning of the poem. They are both mentioned throughout the poem connecting each stanza of the poem. Where these lines do not repeat, the sound pattern becomes a vital part of the poem. Three half rhymes; ”wake”(1) and “go”(3) and “fear”(2) flow from each verse through the vowel sound. End-stopped …show more content…

"Both the lines "waking to sleep”(1) and "learning by going where you have to go”(3) represent paradoxical phrases. This gives the poem a circular effect. Since this poem is made of multiple paradoxes, the meaning of the poem and sound pattern display a circular pattern. The display of the circular form and content help to demonstrate the nature of the poem. The circular pattern is related to our lives through our sleep and awaken pattern by learning by experiences. As the poem unfolds, the paradoxes help to give the poem a clearer …show more content…

Of "those so close beside me,”(7) he asks, believing to be talking to maybe a friend either dead or alive "Which are you,”(7) referring to a state of waking or sleeping. Through this Roethke refers to conflicting meanings of waking and sleeping. He adds a more in depth meaning to these words, relating the waking to those who are living and the sleeping to those who are dead. He suggests that the dead are more alive than the living. The next line shows the word ground in all caps. He suggests that the ground is not just dirt on the surface of the earth, but a matter that replenishes the dead giving new life and continuing the cycle. The repeating lines "And learn by going where I have to go”(9) alludes to the fact that death is our fate and it should not be feared. The next stanza, the last tercet, we come out of the sleeping state and back to our reality, with a better perception on our mortality. Through our new sense of life we are able to see how to live without fear of fate. Take "the lively air”(14) and accept fate and let that lead us through

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