Theodore Roethke Essays - 1040 Words

Theodore Roethke â€Å"Roethke was a great poet, the successor to Frost and Stevens in modern American poetry, and it is the measure of his greatness that his work repays detailed examination† (Parini 1). Theodore Roethke was a romantic who wrote in a variety of styles throughout his long successful career. However, it was not the form of his verse that was important, but the message being delivered and the overall theme of the work. Roethke was a deep thinker and often pondered about and reflected on his life. This introspection was the topic of much of his poetry. His analysis of his self and his emotional experiences are often expressed in his verse. According to Ralph J. Mills Jr., â€Å"this self interest was the primary matter of†¦show more content†¦Roethke married Beatrice O’Connell, a former student at Bennington College, in 1953. Roethke published many volumes of poetry throughout his career. His first volume, Open House, published in 1941, was filled with im ages of growth and decay and had short unrhymed verses (Encarta). According to Allan Seager, â€Å"most of the reviews were good and those that contained adverse criticisms tacitly acknowledged that it was the work of a genuine poet and not a beginner† (Contemporary Authors 476). His next two volumes, The Lost Son and Other Poems (1948) and Praise to the End! (1951) were expressions of his explorations of his interior self. After reading The Lost Son and Other Poems, Richard Blessing claimed â€Å"To my mind, the transformation of Theodore Roethke from a poet of lyric resourcefulness, technical proficiency, and ordered sensibility to a poet of indomitable creativeness and audacity, difficult, heroic, moving, and profoundly disquieting is one of the most remarkable in American history† (Contemporary Authors 478). Roethke received a Pulitzer Prize in 1953 for The Waking. Words for the Wind (1958) won both the National Book Award and the Bollingen Prize. The Far Fie ld, which was published posthumously in 1964, won the National Book Award forShow MoreRelatedTheodore Roethke Research Paper1618 Words   |  7 PagesRoethke Research Paper In 1908, Theodore Huebner Roethke was born in Saginaw, Michigan. There he was raised by his mother and father, who owned a greenhouse with their uncle. As a child, he spent much time in the greenhouse observing the nature, which greatly influenced his future works. Roethke attended Arthur Hill High School and later graduated magna cum laude from the University of Michigan in 1929. Afterword he took a few graduate classes at Michigan and Harvard, but was unhappy and leftRead MoreI Knew A Woman By Theodore Roethke1974 Words   |  8 Pages The poem† I Knew a Woman by Theodore Roethke† is a very sensual poem as it illustrates in several lines about to love making. Even though, it is a poem that shows the poet’s extreme sense of love and remembrance for his beloved. T. Roethke describes the cherished image of the woman that he loves and admires in many ways, and thoughtful tone also describes her as â€Å"lovely in her bones† ( ). He has compared her virtu es with a goddess by using the phrase â€Å"of whom only God could speak† ( ). The dualRead MoreTheodore Roethke s Life And Life936 Words   |  4 Pages Dr. S. Papleacos ENG 202 July 31, 2015 Theodore Roethke Theodore Roethke was born in Saginaw, Michigan on May 25, 1908 to Otto Roethke and Helen Huebner. Along with uncle, his mother and father owned a local greenhouse, where Roethke spent a lot of his childhood days working and playing. He referred to the greenhouse as â€Å"my symbol for the whole of life, a womb, a heaven-on-earth† ( ). The greenhouse played a huge role in his poetry. Roethke implies that only after death of the self canRead MoreMy Papas Waltz by Theodore Roethke Essay examples574 Words   |  3 PagesIn â€Å"My Papa’s Waltz† by Theodore Roethke, was a great poem that can mean many different things to many different people of this world. To me I think it was just a boy who just wanted to spend time with his dad before he has to go to bed. The boy probably does not get to spend time with his dad that much. The father probably works all day and all week and this is the only time the boy gets to spend with him. Roethke use of words in this poem is amazing. The use of the words in this story can meanRead MoreAnalysis Of My Papa s Waltz By Theodore Roethke1258 Words   |  6 Pagesintroduced to â€Å"My Papa’s Waltz† by Theodore Roethke, there is a sense of nostalgia; like watching an old black and white movie. Contradictory to the title however, the poem depicts a perplexing scene of a father drunkenly dancing his son up to bed. There is a bit of controversy about this poem over whether this is about a childhood memory of a son’s cherished moment with his father, or if it is about a violent, dysfunctional family situation. In fact it is both. Theodore Roethke had a conflicting relationshipRead MoreAnalysis Of Theodore Roethke s The Waking 1335 Words   |  6 PagesThough Theodore Roethke firmly lived his life in the modernist age, his works strongly echo the transcendentalist way of writing comparable to Waldo or Emerson; however, he personalized this form of writing through his own personal e xperiences. The foundations of his style of writing have strong origins in his childhood, where his family’s naturalistic lifestyle inspired him and where he developed a deep connection to the natural world through the greenhouses that his family managed. Due to thisRead MoreAnalysis Of My Papa s Waltz By Theodore Roethke963 Words   |  4 Pagesfrom two different authors. The first poem we will venture into is â€Å"My Papa’s Waltz† by Theodore Roethke, the other is â€Å"The Victims† by Sharon Olds. Each describe a father figure and the relationship between the narrator and his father which is in turmoil. We’ll explore in some lengthy detail about the archetype of a bad father and the narrator’s take on them. Starting with â€Å"My Papa Waltz† by Theodore Roethke it brings to mind at first glance from the title something innocent and maybe fun.ThereRead MoreCritical Analysis of My Papa’s Waltz by Theodore Roethke757 Words   |  3 PagesTheodore Huebner Roethke was born in Saginaw, Michigan, the son of Otto Roethke and Helen Huebner. As a student at Saginaws Arthur Hill High School, Roethke demonstrated early promise in a speech on the Junior Red Cross that was published in twenty-six languages. However, the death of his father from cancer in 1923 was a loss that would powerfully shape Roethkes psychic and creative lives. Roethke attitude toward his father Otto was depicted in his widely anthologized work My Papas Waltz writtenRead More The Actual Meaning of My Papas Waltz by Theodore Roethke Essay836 Words   |  4 PagesThe Actual Meaning of My Papas Waltz by Theodore Roethke Poetry is made to express the feelings, thoughts, and emotions of the poet. The reader can interpret the poem however they see fit. Critics are undecided about the theme of Theodore Roethkes My Papas Waltz. Some people believe that the poem is one of a happy exchange between a father and son. The more convincing interpretation is that it has a hidden message of parental abuse. Careful analysis of the keywords and each individualRead MoreAnalysis Of The Poem My Papa s Waltz By Theodore Roethke1020 Words   |  5 Pages My Papa s Waltz, by Theodore Roethke, and Those Winter Sundays, by Robert Hayden, are two of the most famous American poems dealing with the theme of fatherhood. Each of them detail the narrator’s own experience with their fathers and some things are the same about them and some are different. That is what makes poetry unique. There are millions of poems out there so some may appear to be the same upfront, but they always have a factor that separates them fro m the rest. Both of these poems