Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Theodore Roethke

I read “My Papa’s Waltz” in high school and really enjoyed this poem then. It’s short, only four stanzas, and has an easy rhyme scheme. There’s a reading online: http://poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/18045 by Theodore Roethke. I know there are a lot of different interpretations of this poem. I’m not even going to go there. I just take pleasure in its simplicity and readability.

Written in 1964 (later in his life), “Meditation at Oyster River (from North American Sequence)” is very different. It’s in free verse and has no rhyme scheme. Roethke uses many depictions of nature and natural elements (water). He admires nature but, he also seems to give human like tendencies to these elements. “The tongues of water, creeping in, quietly.” I enjoyed reading this poem also. I’m intrigued by the line “The self persists like a dying star.” I’m not sure why but, really liked the sound of it.

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