The Storm, Theodore Roethke - 1336 Words

The descriptive poem written by Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Theodore Roethke, deals with an aggressive storm and all its effects on the environment: the surrounding nature and the people experiencing it. The storm is described in a disorganized manner to highlight the big chaos the storm causes. Nature is precisely illustrated, because it reacts on the storm and thus is an important factor for the description of the storm. The people simply give an extra dimension to the poem, and the theme of men versus nature in the form of a storm. As the title tells us, the poem is about a huge raging and destroying storm, going through a little town, ‘up Santa Lucia . The poet has chosen for an enormous unusual vocabulary of verbs to describe the†¦show more content†¦Furthermore, the presence of people is shown occasionally through the lines or through the description of the storm and nature. There are different lines and words that give us hints about the presence of the people living there where the storm is wandering about. ‘And the small streetlamp swinging and slamming against the lamp-pole. / Where have all the people gone? are the first signs, next there is: ‘one light on the mountain , ‘a child , ‘an alley , ‘Santa Lucia , ‘flat-roofed houses , ‘The walls, the slatted windows , ‘the last watcher , ‘the cardplayers and so on. These people are the population of Santa Lucia, which might be a fictitious town, an island or a peninsula, surrounded by a wild and angry sea. And storms like the one being described in the poem, seem to take place on a frequent base in Santa Lucia. It is not a little town where a hurricane occurs every decade. Theodore Roethke describes the hurricane in such an extremely real and believable manner, which may possibly suggest that he is an inhabitant of Santa Lucia or that the town truly is an invention and that he is part of the made up community. The unlike situation of a poet describing such a ‘usual event is easily explained by the reason thatShow MoreRelatedComparing My Papa s Waltz And Porphyria s Lover908 Words   |  4 PagesThe poems that I chose to compare are â€Å"My Papa’s Waltz† and â€Å"Porphyria’s Lover,† both of which use a dark tone and end rhyme to tell a story of painful love through symbolism. â€Å"My Papa’s Waltz,† written by Theodore Roethke in 1942, tells of a relationship between an alcoholic father who abuses his son. In â€Å"Porphyria’s Lover,† written much earlier in 1836,† Robert Browning describes a chilling tale of a madman who murder’s the woman he loves the most. Both poems have th e same theme of love with anRead MoreWhat I Am Writing: Portraying the Life Through the Works Essay1806 Words   |  8 Pagesdescribing their picture. There are very few aspects that contrast their work to their actual lives. Can a writer’s life and experiences predict and/or validate their works? The child/ parent relationship that is portrayed by Kincaid, Lorde, and Roethke in â€Å"Girl, â€Å"From the House of Yemanjà ¡Ã¢â‚¬ , and â€Å"My Papa’s Waltz† is closely related to the relationship they experienced with their parents. These poems show much relevance between the writers and the relationship they shared with their parents, eachRead MorePoetry Essay Prompt2545 Words   |  11 PagesAP Literature Poetry Essay Prompts (1970–2011) 1970 Poem: â€Å"Elegy for Jane† (Theodore Roethke) Prompt: Write an essay in which you describe the speakers attitude toward his former student, Jane. 1971 Poem: â€Å"The Unknown Citizen† (W.H. Auden) Prompt: In a brief essay, identify at least two of the implications implicit in the society reflected in the poem. Support your statements by specific references to the poem. 1972 NO POEM 1973 (exam not available) 1974 Poem: â€Å"I wonder whether one expects