The Waking Awe and Amazement Quotes

How would you feel if you could hear your being dance? If you were sure you weren’t losing it, you’d probably think you had your total Shmoop on and appreciate the sheer exuberance of the moment.

Exclamation marks, capital letters—it’s a wonder that Roethke didn’t bold this or give it italics for further emphasis and amazement. It may be that “God bless” is purely colloquial, especially given that it’s the ground that’s being blessed, but we doubt it. This speaker has high friends in low places and the highest of esteem for the lowliest ground (and worm—see line 11).

You can picture the speaker just standing back in wonder, shaking his head at what he beholds. Light ravishes the tree in a kind of rapture and the speaker has to wonder how it’s done, and more, who might know and be able to tell the exact process?

Good God and Great Nature—they seem like a matched pair, don’t they. In case the capital “N” wasn’t enough for you (we know it’s never enough for the likes of fellow poet Emily Dickinson), Roethke gives a great adjective to toot nature’s horn. In a poem of human experience and the constrictions of fate, in comes Nature with a mind of its own. How awesome is that? Not to fear, this kind of awe only helps you to appreciate the time you have on this earth.