The Use Of Metaphors In The Waking, By Theodore Roethke

According to James G. Southworth, Professor of Poetry at University of Toledo, “Theodore Roethke is an intensely introspective poet (Southworth 326).” Most of his poems are difficult for readers to understand, but his poems help us to think deeply and gain knowledge about life. “The Waking” is an example of Roethke’s thoughtful work. He uses metaphors to express his feeling of human life. Metaphors are tools that help us to compare one thing in terms of another without using like or as. According to Joni J. Young, Professor at the University of New Mexico, people use metaphors in accounting practice and research. For example, “a metaphor helps us to comprehend one thing—morality, urban renewal, economics, organizations in term of something else—accounting, community, and machines” (Young 879). Colby Phillips, eHow contributor, the effects of metaphor on audiences are creation of vivid imagery and the understanding of words or phrase with new meanings (Phillips). The form of The Waking is villanelle. It contains nineteen lines which are in six stanzas—five tercets followed by a concluding quatrain. In “The Waking”, Roethke uses stanzas throughout the end of his writing. According to Philip K. Jason, most important part of the poem is repetition of lines. Roethke repeats the first line of the first tercet as the third line of the second and the fourth tercet and as the third line of the quatrain. He also repeats the third line of the first tercet as the third line of the