The Early Love Poetry of Theodore Roethke
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Authors
Sharp, Ronald Alan
Issue Date
1967
Type
Thesis
Language
en_US
Keywords
Alternative Title
Abstract
What I purport to do in this thesis, is to examine Roethke's
attitude towards love as it variously appears and emerges in a selected group of his love poems in Words for the Wind. The five poems I have
selected seem to me representative of the central issues involved. "The
Dream" establishes the birth of a particular kind of love and inaugurates many of the themes that will reappear in the other love poetry. I shall
examine it only briefly as a way of getting into the spirit of the
poetry. The bulk of my attention will be given to "Words for the Wind"
and "I Knew a Woman," probably the two most widely anthologized love
poems, and in my opinion, probably the two best. My explications of
these two poems, in which Roethke reaches the height of his affirmation,
will have an extra concern for the poems as art, and at times, in their
attempt to emphasize depth, may even verge on the philological. In "The
Renewal" I will consider the occurrence of one of many special kinds of
problems that arise in the love poetry, in this case the return of the
ego and the resolution of the problem by a sudden semi-mystical illumination.
Finally, in "Love's Progress," I shall examine the apparent
disintegration of love's affirmation, and the nature of "the light /
Beyond the look of love," Roethke's need that goes beyond self-fulfillment.
Description
iii, 84 p.
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License
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