Pulling together separate but sympathetic poetic traditions from the Elizabethan Romantics every bit good as American transcendentalists. Theodore Roethke is concerned by many critics to be an model poet in the Romantic tradition. one who retained a self-identity while steping hazardously near to the function of a poetic impersonator. In some ways it is Roethke’s eldritch ability to “ape” his literary predecessors which marks an facet of the differentiation of his poetry. Roethke’s work “abounds in mentions to Blake. Wordsworth. and Yeats. ” ( Parini 3 ) . taging him clearly and unapologetically as a poet in the Romantic tradition.

The interesting facet of his close allusion to other poets throughout history is that Roethke was able to carry on such close literary allusion in his poesy without “impugning his originality. one can read all Roethke’s work as a go oning conversation with his precursors ; he was a poetic ventriloquist of kinds. able to talk through masks of those whom he called “the great dead. ” ( Parini 3 ) and through these masks of the “great dead” strikingly. Roethke’s remarkable voice emerged. expressing a trade name of uniquely American Romanticism. tempered by the best of the English Romantic tradition. such as Roethke discovered it upon his ain deep jaunts into the Romantics. proper. every bit good as into Elizabethan literature.

One really good illustration of Roethke’s ability to borrow from a Romantic or Elizabethan maestro while all the piece accomplishing an person and “modern” individuality is his poem “I Knew a Woman” which. on the surface. seems to be a stylish imitation of an Elizabethan manner and subject: a Muse verse form written in clever. rhythmic lines with really small in the manner of alien of convoluted enunciation. The verse form does show a kind of anchorite ( or secret ) phrasing in the words “”She taught me Turn. and Counter-turn. and Stand. ” ( Lauter ) which would look to mention to dance moves. but in actuality. refer to the stanza subdivisions of an ode:

The beginning for this unusual manner of calling the three divisions of an ode ( normally called “strophe. ” “antistrophe. ” and “epode” ) is likely Jonson “To the Immortal Memorie. and Friendship of that Baronial Paire. Sir Lucius Cary. and Sir H. Morison. ” in which the footings “the Turne. ” “the Counter-Turne. ” and “the Stand” are used as rubrics for the assorted subdivisions of the verse form.

( La Belle 29 )

By “masking” an allusion to Ben Jonson in the overtly Elizabethan building of this lyric verse form. Roethke identifies his vision of the Muse non merely with the Romantic impression of the Elizabethans ( and latter twenty-four hours English Romantics. proper ) but with the thoughts which combine artistic look. sexual love. and religious salvation together in poetic look.

Such a vision is Romantic non merely due to its evidently marked understandings with a specific poetic tradition but by the consolidative gesture through historical allusion which ties the historical Romantic vision of art and love together with Roethke’s modern-day poetic voice: “By using these literary footings in his ain verse form. Roethke describes the beat of love as a motion in poesy [ … ] Since the adult female by learning him the gestures of sexual love is besides learning him the beat of a poetic signifier. she fulfills the function of the Muse. ” ( La Belle 29 ) and the consequence is a markedly idealised impression of artistic inspiration and the articulation of human titillating and religious yearning: all of which are trademarks of Romantic literature.

Although a pronounced and calculated strain of continual mention to the English Romantics and Elizabethans exists in Roethke’s poetry of the type noted above. a kind of “coded” and ever-present disclosure of his poetic “sources. ” Roethke’s poesy resists being wholly understood or experient unless the extra influence of the American transcendentalists is factored in to any sort of explication of literary rating of his major plants. It is true that “Roethke’s poesy will ne’er be decently understood unless read within the context of Romanticism in its American manifestation. ” ( Parini 4 ) because every bit much as Roethke drew upon the historical illustration of — chiefly — European poets working in Romantic and pre-Romantic manners. his poesy remains infused by a peculiarly American trade name of spiritualism and a peculiarly American trade name of articulation as good. despite Roethke’s frequent trust on “classical” stanza signifiers. metre. and subject.

The necessities of Romantic doctrine remain the same. primary among them the poetic strong belief that: “every adult male is cut off from nature ; given this province of personal businesss. art becomes indispensable in the procedure of rapprochement between ego and nature” ( Parini 4 ) . and if anything. the American version of this Romantic strong belief proved to be “all the more intense. Emerson. Thoreau. Whitman. Melville. and Hawthorne felt cut off from the old universe civilization ; they were isolated work forces. forced to depend on their personal resources for inspiration and fulfilment. ( Parini 4 ) ; without inquiry. Roethke drew from this American trade name of “dark romanticism” right along with the more joyous looks of Wordsworth. Keats. or the Elizabethan poets to make his alone blend of romantic lyricality.

In a verse form like “Meditations of an Old Woman. ” Roethke seems to convey the English impression of Romanticism into direct struggle with American pragmaticism and experiential angst. The topic of the verse form is personal mortality and although Roethke adopts the character of an old adult female in presenting the lines of the verse form. there is nowhere in the verse form any indicant that the lines are non meant to pealing with a cosmopolitan tone.

This poem more than any other in the Roethke canon demonstrates a curious blend of American adn Continental esthesias. as though “His universe position was profoundly Romantic. following from Blake and Wordsworth on one side. from Emerson and Whitman on the other. ” ( Parini 187 ) and could merely make nil else than show this disparate but sympathetic visions in his ain alone voice. That voice sought to arouse from the pandemonium of modern life some of the beauty and religious premium of the yesteryear which Roethke discovered in the historical development of Romanticism.

Plants Cited

La Belle. Jenijoy. “15. Roethke’s I Knew a Woman. ” Explicator 32. 2 ( 1973 ) : 29-31.

Parini. Jay. Theodore Roethke. an American Romantic. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press. 1979.

Lauter. Paul. The Heath Anthology of American Literature. Fifth Edition