sleep/waking
cannot fear
think by feeling
dance from ear to ear
(At first.)
Oh, how I enjoy stating the obvious, but then refuting my own statement. (which i hate)
The simple yet convoluted idea of "wake to sleep" immediately conjures up a type of puzzle in my mind as i read this poem. I have often slowly risen to wakefullness, and i thought that this was where Roethke was taking this. The the second line of "fate" creeps into the poem. Coupled with fear, well both fear and fate go hand in hand with death. As does the last line of "going", go. The concept of, I am here, but sleeping will take me somewhere else, somewhere i am supposed to go.
Perhaps, it is the passing of my father that has me so sensitive to the ideas of death, fate, travel. The notion that there is somewhere we are all going. Is it my hopes? My own fears? This poem conjures up things that, strangely enough I also cannot fear. Or rather, the idea that i have things to learn, and fear only keeps a person from action "going" which keeps them from learning.
The third stanza is particularly enlightening and right to the point. By being a clear statement, rather than a confusing paradoxical one, the author slaps the reader in the face with the concept that
"learn by going where i have to go."
Obviously, the subject of the story has not learned or gone where they need to so far in life, perhaps a trip through the afterlife (sleep) will aid him.
"Who can tell us how?"
Who can tell me wtf the worm is doing? are we the worm? is the worm part of the decaying process? is the stairs the worm is climbing the stairway to heaven?
Why introduce a character the second from the last line?
Decker
P.S. I may figure it out by the time Tuesday's follow up comes along, but feel free to enlighten the dim.
Very nice job here. I think you bring up a good point -- Roethke's poem is all about paradox, and in some way, he's able to situate the poem *between* opposites, between waking and sleeping, life and death.
ReplyDeleteThis, I think, is part of what makes it such a powerful poem.
Do you see any connection between the paradoxes in the poem and the line "I learn by going ..."?
The line "I learn by going" is almost an anti-paradox. (I think I just made up that term.) By which I mean to say, that ; by going, we experience life as a travel, learning as we experience. A truth, a match, which is quite different from a paradox. I believe that the paradoxes are positioned to give the reader some confusion eliciting an off balance feel, then when the reader comes to a solid truth, like: learn by going, it is sort of a rock to cling to, increasing the impact and buy-in the statement is meant to have, which would be diminished if simply thrown out there by itself.
ReplyDelete