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Critical Analysis The Waking
Purpose: examine cycle of life and death, birth and decay and the unnecessary fear of fate - need to embrace Tone: carpe diem; celebratory as Roethke paints a backdrop of night, loss and death only to empart on the readers an awareness of the presence of departed friends and an ultimate sense of acceptance and trust in nature Audience: those walking in reality Theme: in simplest terms, the theme is acceptance of nature's cyclical and its seemingly paradoxical plan for the living. Structure: In "The Waking" Roethke departs from the free verse structure that dominated much of his earlier work, instead opting for a villanelle, a 19 line closed verse form composed of five successive tercets rhyming aba followed by a closing quatrain rhyming abaa. The two key lines, embodying the theme of the poem, are repeated alternately at the closing of each stanza, and then together in the last stanza. Formulistic Approach: In the first stanza, the poet speaks from inside the darkness, as becomes apparent by the third stanza, as he recites his recognition that life leads to death, the phrase "I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow" becoming a mantra. He even hazards to say in lines 2 and 3 that he cannot fear this fact because he is aware that this is all a part of the natural and necessary process of nature. In the second stanza, he further elaborates on the idea that the transcendent and philosophical idea is not terrifying, but in fact irrelevant, because one must "think by feeling," and base ones life on experiences and growth rather than abstract ideas. The third stanza, through striking imagery, illustrates why he is undaunted by the new found knowledge that life leads to death. He senses the presence of someone he cannot clearly see, perhaps his dead father or uncle, and he feels the holyness and power of nature and the properness or even necessity of nature's plan. In the fourth stanza, Roethke offers two more examples of the importance of nature's plan with the phrases "Light takes the Tree" and "The lowly worm climbs up the winding stair." Both examples depict the miraculous and wonderful growth of nature. These two examples of life cycles are contrasted to the central idea in the fifth stanza that nature has "another thing" to do to human beings - death. So, in stanzas four and five he exhibits the two processes that were set out in the first stanza - growth and decay, or living and dying - and challenges the reader with the carpe diem theme to "take the lively air" and live life fully in the time remaining before inevitable death. In the sixth and final stanza Roethke justifies his trust in nature's plan with the idea that whatever seems to die, still infact remains. He says, "What falls away is always," and so the reader sees his vision. Life does lead to death, but death is not infact a complete severance from life. Instead, everything and everyone abides.
Moral Philosophical The title, "The Waking" exemplifies the central idea of the poem: discovery of the fundamental paradox of human life. The "waking" to which Roethke refers is the assertion that life leads to death and that living (waking) ultimately leads only to dying (sleep). Through the use of examples, he conveys that this truth, while startling in its simplicity, is neither overwhelming nor negative. In fact, through the progression of "The Waking", the poem details the poets epiphany and conformation of the truth that life in its purest state is an organic and enigmatic process. For him, life is a process through which individuals move leisurely, "waking slow[ly]" and placing their trust in nature to take them through to paradoxical cycle of coming to life and subsequently moving towards death. Written in the first person, the poet speaks directly to the reader, emparting on them the very experiences which ultimately led him to such conclusions. Speaking directly to the audience allows Roethke to make use of an old tradition in lyric poetry in which the poet speaks on his own authority and in his own voice. He also employs another tradition, an old American affinity for the somewhat didactic voice of the "seer" or "visionary" who is all seeing and knowing and desires to empart his understanding on others.
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