Feathery Friends (a.k.a. The Birds)
Even if you're an avian enthusiast, 3 birds in 22 lines is a lot of feathers for a relatively short poem. Roethke was certainly a nature lover, but this seems a little over the top. It's also worth...
Daddy Dearest: "Father"
"Father" is the only reference to another person in the poem, so it is worthy of some discussion. It really stands out surrounded by so much non-human life—birds, fish, plants, mold. It would app...
Everything Under the Sun: Nature Imagery
We've talked about the birds, but that's just the tip of the nature-berg that Roethke unleashes in this poem. This poem has fish, twigs, leaves, rocks, moss, and even mold. It seems as if Roethke w...