“What's madness but nobility of soul at odds with circumstance?”
Theodore Roethke book The Far Field
Source: The Far Field
Quotes from bookThe Far Field
The Far Field is a 1964 poetry collection by Theodore Roethke, and the poem for which it was named. It was Roethke's final collection, published after his death in 1963.The book is divided into four sections: "North American Sequence", "Love Poems", "Mixed Sequence", and "Sequence, Sometimes Metaphysical". The Far Field contains several of Roethke's best known works, including the title poem "The Far Field", "Meditation at Oyster River", "Journey to the Interior", and "The Rose". It received the National Book Award for Poetry in 1965.
“Pain wanders through my bones like a lost fire;
What burns me now? Desire, desire, desire.”
Theodore Roethke book The Far Field
"The Marrow," ll. 11-12
The Far Field (1964)
Theodore Roethke book The Far Field
"The Right Thing," ll. 1-3
The Far Field (1964)
“I bleed my bones, their marrow to bestow
Upon that God who knows what I would know.”
Theodore Roethke book The Far Field
"The Marrow," ll. 23-24
The Far Field (1964)
“Being, not doing, is my first joy.”
Theodore Roethke book The Far Field
"The Abyss," l. 100
The Far Field (1964)
“The small become the great, the great the small;
The right thing happens to the happy man.”
Theodore Roethke book The Far Field
"The Right Thing," ll. 7-9
The Far Field (1964)
Context: God bless the roots! — Body and soul are one!
The small become the great, the great the small;
The right thing happens to the happy man.
“And everything comes to One,
As we dance on, dance on, dance on.”
Theodore Roethke book The Far Field
Once More, the Round," ll. 11-12
The Far Field (1964)
Context: p>And I dance with William Blake
For love, for Love's sake;And everything comes to One,
As we dance on, dance on, dance on.</p
Theodore Roethke book The Far Field
"The Abyss"
The Far Field (1964)
Context: A terrible violence of creation,
A flash into the burning heart of the abominable;
Yet if we wait, unafraid, beyond the fearful instant,
The burning lake turns into a forest pool,
The fire subsides into rings of water,
A sunlit silence.
“Too much reality can be a dazzle, a surfeit;
Too close immediacy an exhaustion”
Theodore Roethke book The Far Field
"The Abyss"
The Far Field (1964)
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)
