Essays on Roethke

Tennyson, “The Eagle”. Discussion Question: How is the solitary eagle’s strength emphasized in the first stanza? Does the reader “join” the eagle in the second stanza? How or how not? The reader joins the eagle in his dive in the second stanza through the metaphorical comparison with a thunderbolt. Captivated by the bird’s masterful and exact description in the first part of the poem, the reader has no choice but to follow the eagle’s majestic fall towards the water. This is also achieved by the personification of the predator, as the author uses pronouns “he”, and “ ...

The relationship between a son and his father is usually complicated. Even though society pushes people to believe that it should always be rose colored, reality is often otherwise. Theodore Roethke had a very complicated link to his father, who died when he was only a teenager. He portrayed this connection in many of his texts, including his poems. In keeping with his true emotions, and those of many others, he did not present a cut and dry position with regards to he who had given birth to him. There is evidence, like his use of the word papa, ...

Everybody has memories of their childhood, both good and bad, but it is the good ones that many people remember. But that does not rule out the possibility of remembering bad memories because they also bring into a person sad memories they would wish to forget. In the poem, My Papa’s Waltz that is written by Theodore Roethke, a picture of a boy waltzing with his father is created. By the look of things, the story is told by a grown man who has gone back into time to pick an incident from his childhood. The title of ...