Roethke is a new one to me, so I will try and see if I can get a hold of some of his stuff to look at.
Roethke is a new one to me, so I will try and see if I can get a hold of some of his stuff to look at.
Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there, wondering, fearing, doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before. ~ Edgar Allan Poe
I have Words for the Wind which is a volume of Roethke's collected poems through 1958. It appears I'll need to get an updated collected works to include those of Sometimes Metaphysical Poems. I am not at all against that. I like what I've read by Roethke and would certainly not be adverse to reading more. One problem, Quasi. I just checked into Amazon and the volume, Sometimes Metaphysical Poems is currently unavailable (out of print?). The Collected Poems, which runs around $10 may be the best alternative... or the library... but I prefer my own books so that I can jot notes, highlight, etc...
Last edited by stlukesguild; 09-01-2008 at 10:14 PM.
Beware of the man with just one book. -Ovid
The man who doesn't read good books has no advantage over the man who can't read them.- Mark Twain
My Blog: Of Delicious Recoil
http://stlukesguild.tumblr.com/
As Stlukesguild has posted, Sometimes Metaphysical Poems is not available so another text which is available could be the text to be discussed. http://www.amazon.com/Collected-Poem...0482229&sr=8-1 Anyone interested in the Poetry Bookclub...please advise if this is satisfactory. Obviously, a purchase might be required. Anyone interested in a final vote for the top five poets can make that happen as well. They are in descending order...Roethke, Plath, Bishop, Paz and Ungaretti tied with Akhmatova.
IN A DARK TIME
In a dark time, eye begins to see,
I meet my shadow in the deepening shade;
I hear my echo in the echoing wood--
A lord of nature weeping to a tree.
I live between the heron and the wren,
Beasts of the hill and serpents of the den.
What's madness but nobility of soul
At odds with circumstance? The day's on fire!
I know the purity of pure despair,
My shadow pinned against a sweating wall.
That place among the rocks-- is it a cave,
Or winding path? The edge is what I have.
A steady storm of correspondences!
A night flowing with birds, ragged moon,
And in broad day the midnight come again!
A man goes far to find out what he is--
Death of the self in a long, tearless night
All natural shapes blazing unnatural light.
Dark, dark my light, and darker my desire. ...
{excerpt, 1964}
Open House
My secrets cry aloud.
I have no need for tongue.
My heart keeps open house,
My doors are widely swung.
An epic of the eyes
My love, with no disguise.
My truths are all foreknown,
This anguish self-revealed.
I’m naked to the bone,
With nakedness my shield.
Myself is what I wear:
I keep the spirit spare. ... {excerpt}
{Theodore Roethke, “Open House” from Collected Poems of Theodore Roethke. Copyright 1941 by Theodore Roethke.}
Quasi... I have no problem with using Roethke's Collected Poems. If it's all agreed I'll put in an order to Amazon immediately and until it arrives I can utilize Words for the Wind which covers the collected poems up to 1958. I also have the collected works of Paz and Bishop and a collection of Akhmatova. I thought I had something by Ungaretti... but actually don't. As for Plath... well let's just say I'm not all that fond of the confessional poets and leave it at that.
Beware of the man with just one book. -Ovid
The man who doesn't read good books has no advantage over the man who can't read them.- Mark Twain
My Blog: Of Delicious Recoil
http://stlukesguild.tumblr.com/
I will not be joining in. I just ordered a substantial scholarly work, and on a personal level I have too much going on, sorry. If the selected text is unavailable, my branch isn't likely to have it.
Infirmity
In purest song one plays the constant fool
As changes shimmer in the inner eye.
I stare and stare into a deepening pool
And tell myself my image cannot die.
I love myself: that’s my one constancy.
Oh, to be something else, yet still to be!
Sweet Christ, rejoice in my infirmity;
There’s little left I care to call my own.
Today they drained the fluid from a knee
And pumped a shoulder full of cortisone;
Thus I conform to my divinity
By dying inward, like an aging tree.
The instant ages on the living eye;
Light on its rounds, a pure extreme of light
Breaks on me as my meager flesh breaks down—
The soul delights in that extremity.
Blessed the meek; they shall inherit wrath;
I’m son and father of my only death.
A mind too active is no mind at all;
The deep eye sees the shimmer on the stone;
The eternal seeks, and finds, the temporal,
The change from dark to light of the slow moon,
Dead to myself, and all I hold most dear,
I move beyond the reach of wind and fire. ... {four of six stanzas}
Theodore Roethke, “Infirmity” from Collected Poems of Theodore Roethke. Copyright © 1963 by Beatrice Roethke
To get this discussion started, before it needs CPR, we will use a website and perhaps even eliminate the need of purchasing a text...perhaps. The link, http://www.poetryfoundation.org/arch...tml/?id=172122 will have the rest of this poem by Roethke...Big Wind
BIG WIND
Where were the greenhouses going,
Lunging into the lashing
Wind driving water
So far down the river
All the faucets stopped?—
So we drained the manure-machine
For the steam plant,
Pumping the stale mixture
Into the rusty boilers,
Watching the pressure gauge
Waver over to red,
As the seams hissed
And the live steam
Drove to the far
End of the rose-house,
Where the worst wind was,
Creaking the cypress window-frames,
Cracking so much thin glass
We stayed all night,
Stuffing the holes with burlap; .....
Last edited by quasimodo1; 09-07-2008 at 08:05 PM.
From The Oxford Book of American Poetry
(edited by David Lehman)
Theodore Roethke was born in Saginaw, Michigan. His father owned what one visitor from Holland
Called "the finest greenhouse in America." When Roethke was fourteen, the greenhouse--Roethke's
"symbol for the whole of life, a womb, a heaven-on-earth" --was sold after a bitter dispute between
Otto, the poet's father, and Otto's brother Charles. In the aftermath, Charles committed suicide; Otto
Died of cancer mere months later. Roethke, who had a history of mental breakdowns, taught for many
Years at the University of Washington, where his devoted students included Richard Hugo, Carolyn Kizer, David Wagoner, and James Wright. "Write like someone else" was Roethke's best pedagogic
Advice. Of his 1948 book THE LOST SON, the author said, "In spite of all the muck and welter, the dark, thee dreck of these poems, I count myself among the happy poets." He suffered a fatal hear attack in a
Friend's swimming pool in 1963.
{This brief bio of Roethke is, I assume, David Lehman's way of engaging the reader for the poems to follow in this anthology. I am quoting it here because of the greenhouse reference.}
Last edited by quasimodo1; 09-07-2008 at 08:03 PM.
The second poem from this website... http://www.poetryfoundation.org/arch...html?id=172123 is "Child on top of a Greenhouse" and ought to be included in any discussion of the first poem.
Book to be the topic: The Collected Poems of Theodore Roethke, Doubleday, 1966. One outlet for purchase= http://www.alibris.com/search/books/...dore%20Roethke
Last edited by quasimodo1; 09-08-2008 at 06:49 AM.
Oh great, Roethke was selected and I actually have that book. I will have to find it.Originally Posted by quasimodo1
LET THERE BE LIGHT
"Love follows knowledge." – St. Catherine of Siena
My literature blog: http://ashesfromburntroses.blogspot.com/
Thanks Virgil. Anybody having difficulty finding/acquiring the text? I have an extra and can ship it anywhere USA. q1
I'm still waiting on my copy from the library - I can't buy it because I just dropped 700$ for school books, and I am broke beyond belief.
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