"The Waking" -- Theodore Roethke

Emily Rea

March 21, 2008

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poem text

We think by feeling. What is there to know?
I hear my being dance from ear to ear.
I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.

Of those so close beside me, which are you?
God bless the Ground! I shall walk softly there,
And learn by going where I have to go.

Light takes the Tree; but who can tell us how?
The lowly worm climbs up a winding stair;
I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.

Great Nature has another thing to do
To you and me, so take the lively air,
And, lovely, learn by going where to go.

This shaking keeps me steady. I should know.
What falls away is always. And is near.
I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.
I learn by going where I have to go.

"The Waking" is the final poem in the collection The Waking" compiled in 1953, for which Roethke recieved the Pulitizer Prize in poetry in 1954.

image: http://crackersunited.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2007/11/waking_up.jpg