The Waking Villanelle

Theodore Roethke's complex and abstract poem uses the villanelle form as he considers his life in a broader context than most consider. In this poem Roethke ponders knowledge in relation to sensation. "We think by feeling." Throughout the poem he asks more questions than he answers, and takes us into a journey into his head. The Waking seems like a meditative self-discovering poem that urgers readers to deeply reflect. The repetition of "I wake to sleep" seems to signify the cycle of life that humans find themselves in. Also mentioned in this poem is the man's death. It seems that while all these abstract thoughts are floating through the air, there are always the certaintys in life. The events of sleeping and dying seem to answer more questions for the author. His dreams must reveal certain things that he can not put into words.