Theodore Roethke - The Waking - Jenna Pelosi

Theodore Roethke – The Waking pg. 575
This poem is brilliant with its usage of new language. The two lines that are repeated throughout the poem are, “I wake to sleep and take my waking slow, I learn by going where I have to go” (Roethke, pg. 575). The speaker is combining words in ways that they are not normally stated. For example, “I wake to sleep”, normally we sleep to do the opposite of awakening. Also, later in the poem the speaker says, “this shaking keeps me steady”. Obviously, when we shaker we are furthest from feeling stable or steady, yet the speaker expresses comfort in such an uncomforting image being presented. This poem offers a sense of paradox yet this sense of irony seems to be familiar. Also, I feel we learn more by life’s lessons, things in life that don’t seem to happen or appear as we had imagined them. In this poem the speaker is finding themselves by going where they are meant to go? I am confused on the connection to be made through this maze or insincerity, yet I know that the speaker brings a strong sense of poignancy.