Liberal Arts Blog —Theodore Roethke (1908–1963) — “My Papa’s Waltz,” (1942) “The Waking, (1954) “ “I Knew A Woman” (1954)
Liberal Arts Blog — Tuesday is the Joy of Literature, Language, Religion, and Culture Day
Today’s Topic: Theodore Roethke (1908–1963) — “My Papa’s Waltz,” (1942) “The Waking, (1954) “ “I Knew a Woman” (1954)
To US Poet Laureate James Dickey (1923–1997), Roethke was the greatest of all US poets — even better than Whitman. His poetry is among the most anthologized of the last few decades. He won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry once (1954) and the National Book Award for Poetry twice (1959,1965). “He was also a respected poetry teacher and taught at the University of Washington for fifteen years. His students from that period won two Pulitzer Prizes for Poetry and two others were nominated for the award. “He was probably the best poetry-writing teacher ever,” said poet Richard Hugo. who studied under Roethke.”
This morning I decided to check out a few of Roethke’s poems and share them with you. Plus a few biographical notes. Are you a fan? favorite poem? line? metaphor? Did you ever have a poetry teacher that changed your life?
Experts — please chime in. Correct, elaborate, elucidate.
MY PAPA’S WALTZ (1942) — “The whiskey on your breath could make a small boy dizzy, but I hung on like death, such waltzing was not easy”
1. “The whisky on your breath could make a small boy dizzy; but I hung on like death: such waltzing was not easy. We romped until the pans slid from the kitchen shelf; my mother’s countenance could not unfrown itself.”
2. “The hand that held my wrist was battered on one knuckle; at every step you missed. My right ear scraped a buckle.
Your beat time on my head with a palm caked hard by dirt then waltzed me off to bed still clinging to your shirt.”
NB: Roethke suffered from manic depression and was hospitalized in 1935 (age 27). Is this a poem of terror? Or a poem that balances fear and delight? Critics differ widely.
THE WAKING — “I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow”
1. “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. We think by feeling. What is there to know? I hear my being dance from ear to ear. I wake to sleep and take my waking slow.”
2. “Of those so close beside me, which are you? God bless the Ground! I walk softly there And learn by going where I have to go, Light takes the Tree; but who can tell us how? The lowly worm climbs up a winding stair; I wake to sleep and take my waking slow.”
3. “Great Nature has another thing to do, to you and me; so take the lively air, and, lovely learn by going where to go.
This shaking keeps me steady, I should know what falls away is always. And is near. I wake to sleep and take my waking slow. I learn by going where I have to go.”
I KNEW A WOMAN — “I knew a woman, lovely in her bones, when small birds sighed, she would sigh back at them”
1. “I knew a woman, lovely in her bones, when small birds sighed, she would sigh back at them, Ah, when she moved, she moved more ways than one: the shapes a bright container can contain! Of her choice virtues only gods should speak, Or English poets who grew up on Greek (I’d have them sing in chorus, cheek to cheek).
2. “How well her wishes went! She stroked my chin, She taught me Turn, and Counter-turn, and Stand; She taught me Touch, and undulant white skin; I nibbled meekly from her proffered hand; She was the sickle; I, poor I, the rake, coming behind her for her pretty sake (But what prodigious mowing we did make).
3. “‘Loves like a gander, and adores a goose; her full lips pursed, the errant note to seize; she played it quick, she played it light and loose; my eyes they dazzled at her flowing knees; her several parts could keep a pure repose, or one hip quiver with a mobile nose (She moved in circles, and those circles moved).
NB: “Let seed be grass, and grass turns into hay: I’m a martyr to a motion not my own. What’s freedom for? To know eternity.
I swear she cast a shadow white as stone. But who could count eternity in days? These old bones live to learn her wanton ways: (I measure time by how a body sways).”
FOOTNOTE — Biographical tidbits — his family’s 25-acre greenhouse; he married a former student (Beatrice O’Connell) but had no children; had a heart attack in a friend’s swimming pool and died at age 55.
1. “Roethke was born in Saginaw, Michigan, and grew up on the west side of the Saginaw River. His father, Otto, was a German immigrant, a market-gardener who owned a large local 25-acre greenhouse.”
2. “Much of Theodore’s childhood was spent in this greenhouse, as reflected by the use of natural images in his poetry.”
3. “In early 1923 when Roethke was 14 years old, his uncle committed suicide and his father died of cancer. Roethke noted that these events affected him deeply and influenced his work.”
NB: Roethke called the greenhouse — “my symbol for the whole of life, a womb, a heaven-on-earth.”
My Papa’s Waltz by Theodore Roethke | Poetry Foundation
The Waking by Theodore Roethke | Poetry Foundation
I Knew a Woman by Theodore Roethke | Poetry Foundation
Theodore Roethke | Poetry Foundation
https://lithub.com/the-most-anthologized-poems-of-the-last-25-years/
QUOTE OF THE MONTH
“Make your own Bible. Select and collect all the words and sentences that in all your readings have been to you like the blast of a trumpet.”
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
My spin — then periodically review, re-rank, and exchange your list with those you love. I call this the “Orion Exchange” because seven is about as many as any human can digest at a time. Game?
ATTACHMENTS BELOW:
#1 A graphic guide to justice (9 metaphors on one page).
#2 “39 Songs, Prayers, and Poems: the Keys to the Hearts of Seven Billion People” — Adams House Senior Common Room Presentation, (11/17/20)
NB: Palestine Orion (Decision) — let’s exchange Orions, let’s find Rumi’s field (“Beyond all ideas of right and wrong, there is a field. Meet me there” Rumi, 13 century Persian Sufi mystic)
THE LAST FOUR YEARS OF POSTS ORGANIZED THEMATICALLY INTO FOURTEEN BOOK-LENGTH PDFS:
PDF with headlines — Google Drive
Please share the coolest thing you learned this week related to words, language, literature, religion, and culture. Or, even better, the coolest or most important thing you learned in your life related to Words, Language, Literature (eg. quotes, poetry, vocabulary) that you have not yet shared.
This is your chance to make someone else’s day. Or to cement in your own mind something that you might otherwise forget. Or to think more deeply than otherwise about something dear to your heart. Continuity is key to depth of thought.
