Hah, I missed this. He's one of my all-time favorites; I have dozens of R's poems to heart. And of course I'm regulalry accused of channeling him, though in my defense I wrote "like Roethke" before I ever encountered his work...
His "A Far Fielf", way too long to reproduce here, is available online and magnificent; especially the part beginning "A man faced with his own immensity..." Lines like "His spirit moves like monumental wind / that gentles on a sunny, blue plateau" and "odor of basswood on a mountain slope / (a scent beloved of bees)" and "a ripple widening from a single stone / winding around the waters of the world." are simply stunning to me, they are so pure.
In a poem beginning "Was I too glib about eternal things..." he finishes with the couplet "I feel the autumn fail; all that slow fire / denied in me, who has denied desire." Is this not to die for?
I do not understand why Roethke is not ranked at the very top of great American poets. I'd put him ahead of Stevens, for example.
(robt)
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