Theodore Roethke: Trending quotes

Theodore Roethke trending quotes. Read the latest quotes in collection

Theodore Roethke: 172 quotes1 like

“There's an element of desperation in the insistence of the graduate student's respect for knowledge — as opposed to wisdom.”

Theodore Roethke

Source: Poetry and Craft (1965), p. 95

“The wasp waits.
The edge cannot eat the center.
The grape listens.
The path tells little to the serpent.
An eye comes out of the wave.
The journey from flesh is longest.
A rose sways least.
The redeemer comes a dark way.”

Theodore Roethke

"The Shape of the Fire," ll. 56-63
The Lost Son and Other Poems (1948)

“This urge, wrestle, resurrection of dry sticks,
Cut stems struggling to put down feet,
What saint strained so much,
Rose on such lopped limbs to a new life?”

Theodore Roethke

"Cuttings (later)," ll. 1-4
The Lost Son and Other Poems (1948)

“Mother of quartz, your words writhe into my ear.
Renew the light, lewd whisper.”

Theodore Roethke

"The Shape of the Fire," ll. 54 - 55
The Lost Son and Other Poems (1948)

“God bless the roots!”

Theodore Roethke book The Far Field

Body and soul are one!
The small become the great, the great the small;
The right thing happens to the happy man.
"The Right Thing," ll. 7-9
The Far Field (1964)

“Is pain a promise? I was schooled in pain,
And found out what I could of all desire;
I weep for what I'm like when I'm alone
In the deep center of the voice and fire.I know the motion of the deepest stone.
Each one's himself, yet each one's everyone.”

Theodore Roethke

"The Sententious Man," ll. 31-36
Words for the Wind (1958)