Theodore Roethke
Theodore Roethke
Theodore Huebner Roethkewas an American poet. He published several volumes of award-winning and critically acclaimed poetry. Roethke is regarded as one of the most accomplished and influential poets of his generation...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionPoet
Date of Birth25 May 1908
CountryUnited States of America
summer wall dark
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........ ....... Dark,dark my light, and darker my desire. My soul, like some heat-maddened summer fly, Keeps buzzing at the sill. ~From "The Waking" by Theodore Roethke
summer rain rivers
I came where the river Ran over stones; My ears knew An early joy. And all the waters Of all the streams Sang in my veins That summer day.
eye longest race running shakes
What shakes the eye but the invisible? Running from God's the longest race of all
happens happy mystery others prisoners shall time
Let others probe the mystery if they can/ Time harried prisoners of shall and will./ The right thing happens to the happy man.
pain fire bones
Pain wanders through my bones like a lost fire
love-is joy torment
Love begets love. This torment is my joy.
roots soul body
God bless the roots! Body and soul are one.
my-own
I came to love, I came into my own.
soul body
The soul has many motions, body one.
heart poet
The poet: would rather eat a heart than a hambone.
astonishment perpetual
Live in a perpetual great astonishment.
girl writing boys
In our age, if a boy or girl is untalented, the odds are in favor of their thinking they want to write.
wings light bird
In this place of light: he dares to live Who stops being a bird, yet beats his wings Against the immense immeasurable emptiness of things.
art hysteria defense
Art is our defense against hysteria and death.