For Theodore Roethke (1967). Content and Description

Originally collected in Near the Ocean, “For Theodore Roethke” also appeared in Lowell’s later book, History, under the title “Theodore Roethke 1908-63.” Although the two versions differ in significant ways, they remain closely related, not only through subject and general intent to honor a fellow poet, but also in the reuse of many of the same phrasings and images. The first version consists of four unrhymed stanzas, each four lines long.

The second, like all the poems in History, is an unrhymed sonnet. Aside from the structure, the first three lines of the second version present the most drastic change. Rather than opening with an account of the speaker’s psyche, it opens with a recollection of Theodore Roethke’s time at Yaddo, an estate in Saratoga Springs, New York, that offers residencies to artists. Lowell writes directly to Roethke, “you shared a bathroom with a bag / tree-painter whose boobs bounced in the basin, / your blues basin where you wished to plunge your head. . . .” (ellipsisLowell’s 533).

By including the personal information about Roethke, whether accurate or not, Lowell explicitly introduces his fellow poet’s struggle with mental illness and depression. As did Lowell, Roethke suffered several bouts of severe mental instability, resulting in repeated hospitalization and psychiatric treatment. History deals at length with Lowell’s personal life, including his psychological struggles. Any reader who reads as far as “Theodore Roethke 1908-63” in the collection, or any reader who has even basic knowledge of Lowell’s biography, will grasp the personal connection that he draws between himself and Roethke.

The similarities between the authors abound, and others have drawn similar connections before. They were close in age, dealt with similar issues in their lives, included many of those issues in their poetry, and struggled to find a poetic form between the strict meter and rhyme of formalism and the looser forms of more contemporary free verse.

Lowell wrote his homage to Roethke after Roethke’s premature death in 1963. Unexpectedly suffering a heart attack upon diving into a friend’s pool, he drowned. He was only 55 years old when he died and at the height of his powers as a poet. The suddenness of his death prompted a number of tributes, honoring the poet for his knowledge of and attention to nature, for his skill in using rhyme and meter, and for his skill in representing truths through the subjective nature of individual experience. Interestingly, Lowell’s tribute reads as not quite in praise of Roethke.

Clearly Lowell respected Roethke, as the third stanza evidences: “The black stump of your hand / just touched the waters under the earth, / and left them quickened with your name . . .” (ellipsis Lowell’s 396). The second stanza, however, describes Roethke in less pleasant terms: “Sheeplike, unsociable reptilian.” Lowell, so often open about his own life’s inadequacies, does not romanticize Roethke’s. Instead, his tribute pays homage to the poet by addressing Roethke’s life as accurately as he can envision it.

For Discussion or Writing:
1. Lowell wrote a number of poems named after poet friends of his for History. Read the poems on Allen Tate, Randall Jarrell, Sylvia Plath, Ezra Pound, William Carlos Williams, or any of his other contemporaries. How does he treat them in comparison to Theodore Roethke? Do they seem to be friends, colleagues, historical figures, or all three? Why might Lowell take other literary figures so seriously when thinking about and practicing his own writing?

2. Read several Roethke poems from different periods in his career. Start with selections from his first book, Open House (1941), followed by something from The Waking(1953), and, finally, read selections of his posthumously published The Far Field (1964). How does his style change over the course of his career? Do his aesthetic reconsiderations relate in any way to Lowell’s?

3. Read both versions of “For Theodore Roethke (1908-63).” Citing specific examples, make an argument for which has greater success in addressing the particularities of Roethke’s life. Which works better as a poem? Include in your argument a discussion of structure, line length, diction, and imagery.