Theodore+Roethke


 * ====[[file:theodore roethke 2.wp3]][[file:theodore_roethke.wp3]]====

[[image:http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/ABPub/2008/10/29/2003807281.jpg width="528" height="343" caption="Theodore sitting and laughing with somebody."]]

 * === Theodore was born in[| Saginaw, Michigan] on May 25, 1908 ===
 * === His father was a German immagrant ===
 * === His family owned the biggest greenhouse in Michigan. ===
 * === Theodore's dad died when he was when he was teenager. ===
 * === Theodore hated high school. ===
 * === Theodore worked at the Heinz pickle factories during his college summers. ===
 * === Theodore Roethke was an American poet and a teacher. ===
 * === He showed how he can transform his love for nature into masterpieces. ===
 * === Used personal imagery ===
 * === Considered one of the most respected artists of the 20th century ===
 * === Theodore died from a fatal coronary occlusion in a pool ===
 * === Theodore died on August 1, 1963 in Bainbeidge when he was 98 ===
 * === In 1955 he traveled to Italy and published 47 pomes ===
 * === In 1951 he was in a depersion ===

=The Dance=

By Theodore Roethke
Is that dance slowing in the mind of man That made him think the universe could hum? The great wheel turns its axle when it can; I need a place to sing, and dancing-room, And I have made a promise to my ears I'll sing and whistle romping with the bears. For the are all my friends: I saw one slide Down a steep hillside on a cake of ice, — Or was that in a book? I think with pride:

A caged bear rarely does the same thing twice In the same way: O watch his body sway! dash; This animal remembering to be gay. I tried to fling my shadow at the moon, The while my blood leaped with a wordless song. Though dancing needs a master, I had none To teach my toes to listen to my tongue. But what I learned there, dancing all alone, Was not the joyless motion of a stone.

I take this cadence from a man named Yeats; I take it, and I give it back again: For other tunes and other wanton beats Have tossed my heart and fiddled through my brain. Yes, I was dancing-mad, and how That came to be the bears and Yeats would know.

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