THEODORE ROETHKE
Theodore Roethke was born in Saginaw Michigan on May 25, 1908. As a child, he spent much of his time at his father’s greenhouse where he cared for the growing plants. Because of this, Roethke was inspired to write poetry about the natural world and the environment in which he was surrounded. According to Walter Kalaidjian, “Roethke built on a modernist stream-of-consciousness narrative technique. He achieved a poetic performance in a surreal, verbal style; one that depicted primal and psychic states of mind.” (http://www.english.illinois.edu/MAPS/poets/m_r/roethke/bio.htm).
At the age of 18, Roethke enrolled as a student at the University of Michigan where he graduated in 1929 at the top of his class. While studying there, his family encouraged him to pursue a career in Law; however, he quit soon after he started. For much of his education, Roethke was unhappy while in school because he felt confined to the knowledge of his professors and textbooks. For this reason, he attended Harvard University from 1929-1931 where he studied under poet Robert Hillyard. During his last year there, the hard economic times of the Great Depression forced him to end any further education.
After leaving Harvard, Roethke taught as a professor at numerous colleges including Lafayette University, Michigan State University, PennState University, Bennington College, and University of Washington. Over the course of these 17 years, he traveled around the United States, meeting several famous authors, writers, and poets along the way.
In 1954, Roethke was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for his work, The Waking: Poems 1933-1953. He earned this title because of his “greenhouse” poems which were directly inspired by his childhood. Other awards he received include The Bollingen Prize (1957), The National Book Award (1958), and after his death, The National Book Award (1964).
At age of 55, Roethke suffered a major heart-attack and passed away in August of 1963.
Overall, Roethke was highly regarded in the world of poetry. Many considered him to be one of the greatest environmental poets of his time. As written in the Encyclopedia of World Biography:
“He demonstrated a wide range of styles and growing awareness of how to transform his love of nature into a vehicle for expressing his mystical visions.” (http://0-find.galegroup.com.elibrary.mel.org/itx/start.do?prodId=AONE)
Roethke was also considered a great physiologist and mentalist. According to James Dickey:
“There is no poetry anywhere that is so valuably conscious of the human body as Roethke’s; no poetry that can place the body in an environment.” (http://www.english.illinois.edu/MAPS/poets/m_r/roethke/bio.htm)
Major Works
Collected Poems (1966)
I Am! Says the Lamb (1961)
Open House (1941)
Party at the Zoo (1963)
Praise to the End! (1951)
Sequence, Sometimes Metaphysical (1964)
The Far Field (1964)
The Lost Son (1948)
The Waking: Poems 1933-1953 (1953)
Words for the Wind: The Collected Verse (1958)
http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/13
http://www.english.illinois.edu/MAPS/poets/m_r/roethke/bio.htm
http://0-find.galegroup.com.elibrary.mel.org/itx/start.do?prodId=AONE.
http://famouspoetsandpoems.com/poets/theodore_roethke/biography
http://www.washington.edu/uwired/outreach/cspn/Website/Graphics/roethke.jpg
4 Comments
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That’s really cool! It’s interesting that Teddy’s environmental passions informed his writing. My poet, Sara Teasdale, also wrote poetry inspired by nature. She, too, lived through the Great Depression and won the Pulitzer Prize for her work.
Who were some of the famous poets you mentioned that Teddy met in his travels?
So, Eustice, both of our poets are from Michigan! My poet, Marge Piercy, is from Detroit and is still alive and kicking. Both of our poets seem to write about the same thing: the environment around them. Piercy’s poems tend to be depressing and centers around the darker aspects of life. While she was in Cape Cod, her inspiration sparked from the natural world around her. Piercy also attended the University of Michigan (not at the same time though) and received her Bachelor of Arts in 1957. I can’t wait to read your analysis work and get a taste of his poetry.
Stacey, maybe both of our poets have a similar life. Both were professors, both lived in the Midwest (Valentine in Chicago, yours in Detroit), and both wrote mystic poetry. It may be a bit of a stretch, but our poets could be kind of similar. Anyway my poet goes into mysticsm and makes up metaphor, so maybe there’s nothing in common. I’m interested to see if your poetry is at all similar to mine.
Hey, Some good comments from your fellow bloggers! Wish I could have connected to your sources. They don’t seem to be hyperlinked. Good information on Roethke. Hope you have continued to find him an intriguing poet to study. You give a good overview and a sense of his importance and his most recognized work. Roethke is one of my personal favorites!
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