Theodore Huebner Roethke (pronounced /ˈrɛtkə/ RET-keh) (May 25, 1908 – August 1, 1963) was an American poet, who published several volumes of poetry characterized by its rhythm and natural imagery. He was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for poetry in 1954 for his book, The Waking.
Roethke was born in Saginaw, Michigan. His father, Otto Roethke, was a German immigrant, who owned a large local greenhouse along with his brother (Theodore's uncle). Much o...
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Theodore Huebner Roethke (pronounced /ˈrɛtkə/ RET-keh) (May 25, 1908 – August 1, 1963) was an American poet, who published several volumes of poetry characterized by its rhythm and natural imagery. He was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for poetry in 1954 for his book, The Waking.
Roethke was born in Saginaw, Michigan. His father, Otto Roethke, was a German immigrant, who owned a large local greenhouse along with his brother (Theodore's uncle). Much of his childhood was spent in this greenhouse, as reflected by the use of natural images in his poetry. The poet's adolescent years were jarred, however, by his uncle's suicide and by the death of his father from cancer, both in early 1923, when Theodore (Ted) was only 15. He also suffered from many bouts of illnesses. When he was 17, the family pet, a tamed grey wolf caught by his father from the wild when it was a cub, attacked Theodore, severing his scrotum and inner thigh. He has reflected upon this tragic event in his famous poem The Thing...
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