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My favorite poet by far. I got this book as a gift when I was 16, and used at least three of his poems as inspiration for my creative writing classes. His poems are beautiful and, though many poets write about nature, his are original, and he uses certain techniques (his use of villanelles and beats per lines especially) that make his poems all the more memorable. This book also includes pages from his notebooks, and though it's quite hard to read some of his handwriting, it's very interesting b...
Don't get this from the library. It is fun to dip into. There are some wonderful lines. But trying to read straight through a massive collection of fragments that another (*cough*lesstalented*cough*) poet has arranged to sort of form poems is a tad wearisome. My mind kept trying to form connections and meanings that weren't there.
"The trees are breathing less. You, winky, sleep.I've come to tear the sun out. Save me, mouse.I'm done with every pretty thing."
Notes culled from the hundreds of notebooks and journals Roethke kept. Little morsels of genius and silliness that will help you become a better poet.
Culled from Roethke's notebooks, this is an intriguing collection of musings, unfinished poems and aphorisms, created perhaps out of Roethke's “desire to leave many poems in a state of partial completeness; to write nothing but fragments,” as he put it in a note circa 1945. Some memorable sayings...There’s no place else: begin from where you are.Teacher: one who carries on his education in public.A poet: someone who is never satisfied with saying one thing at a time.Live in a perpetual great ast...
Fantastic book full of fragments and reflections collected from the notebooks of Theodore Roethke. By turns brilliant, evocative and troubling these poetic fragments paint a portrait of a mind deeply engaged with the alchemy of the word. This book was my introduction to this man's work and based on what I have read here I will be exploring the rest of this gifted writers oeuvre.
A fragmentary glimpse inside the mind of a successful poet.
The raw language that lies beneath. One of my favorite books. Don’t diminish it by trying to make “sense” just revel in the sound.
"From Roethke to Goethe isn't really so far// Put a capital G in the capital R --// then knock out small /k/, a quite simple thing -- and you've got a fat cat fixed up like a king." Exhilarating, complex poetry and comments organized by mood or tone. Like so many suffering from bipolar illness, Roethke poised on the edge of chaos, channels his visceral perceptions and visions into words which ring like church bells, announcing eternal truths.
this was one of the first HARDBACKS i ever bought, the year it came out. it was a big deal.and my first Roethke - read so often that sections of it feel like a stretched and scattered poem swirling into cohesion. i cannot imagine reading him without meeting the man in these jewels from his notebooks
Discovered his poem on tumblr and thought I would give it try. I enjoyed most part but there are just too many references to Christianity and I'm always confused by the symbolism when I read poems (probably because I'm an Atheist so I don't really know a lot about that). Favorite poems: -Heart, You Have No House-The Middle of A Roaring World -The Thin Cries of The Spirit
I'll be dabbling in and in and in this stimulating collection of tibits from Roaethke's notebooks for days and weeks to come. Helps me make sense of my own journals and how I am drawn back into them again and again, like panning for the impossibly tiny flake of gold in the mud.
It's not always as good, and there's many things I see differently than Roethke, yet there's still so much beauty in this book and at more than one place it reminded me of Rilke's Letters To A Young Poet.
roethke's poetry is mesmerizing. at times he sounds like a hebrew prophet born again in middle america's red states.
Love Roethke's work. This book is a collection of his notes and meanderings on various topics. Whether you read it in parts or cover to cover, there is something in here for all.
Although this is a collection of fragments, it is a necessary companion to the collected poems of Roethke. I find myself reading it more often then the published poems!