Pulitzer Prize Poetry Winner
The Waking
by Theodore Roethke
Summary
Roethke moves from the loamy "greenhouse" poems rooted in his father's Michigan nursery to villanelles and meditations on consciousness and dread. He yokes formal mastery to a primal, almost incantatory music, finding metaphysics in soil, slugs, and the body's smallest motions. The book consolidated his standing as one of the most original lyric voices of his generation.
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Historical Context & Significance
Roethke was a pioneer of the "deep image" school, using nature as a mirror for the intense highs and lows of his own mind.