Four Critics’ Perspective of Theodore Roethkes Elegy for Jane Essay

Four Critics Perspective of Theodore Roethkes Elegy for Jane more(prenominal) than forty years after her untimely death, Jane Bannick breathes again--or so it seems while training virtu solelyy her. Janes unfortunate death in an equestrian accident prompted cardinal of her professors, the poet Theodore Roethke, to write a moving verse, Elegy for Jane, recalling his young student and his feelings of sorrow at her loss. Opinions appeared almost as soon as Roethkes tribute to Jane, and passages about the poem continue to appear in articles and books. Recent writings by Parini, Ross-Bryant, Kalaidjian, and Stiffler disclose current assessments. According to Parini, Janes death is not the subject of the poem rather, her death presents an occasion for calling up a certain wound up state in which Roethkes feelings of grief and pity transcend the occasion. Following the shopworn of elegiac celebration of the vegetation god Adonis reaching back down to Bions Lament for Adonis and Moschuss Lament for Bion, Roethke associates the deceased with elemental aspects of nature--the plant tendrils, the pickerel, the wren--to withdraw the pathos of her death. A Romantic poet, Roethke views death as a constitute the plants point to rebirth (138-39). The subject of Roethkes most famous poem (45) becomes the reaction to Janes death and his ambivalent emotions at her graveside. Without the associations of earlier elegies, the emotion would surpass the occasion. Roethke mourns not only Jane, whom he knew only slightly, but also the deaths of us all (138-39). Jane presents one aspect of woman in The Waking collection (1953) Ross-Bryant views Jane as a young girl who is dead. The poem expresses concern with the coming of death. This poignant elegy is presen... ...ini and Ross-Bryant appear almost polarized in their opinion of the nature of Roethkes feelings for Jane Parini contends that Roethke mourns for us all Ross-Bryant feels that Roethkes grief is intensely pe rsonal. Other than the nature of than Roethkes feelings for Jane, these four critics run across little to disagree about in Elegy for Jane. Works CitedKalaidjian, Walter B. consciousness Theodore Roethke. Columbia U of South Carolina P, 1987. Parini, Jay. Theodore Roethke An American Romantic. Amherst U of Massachusetts P, 1979. Roethke, Theodore. The equanimous Poems of Theodore Roethke. New York Anchor-Doubleday, 1975. Ross-Bryant, Lynn. Theodore Roethke Poetry of the Earth . . . Poet of the Spirit. Port Washington, N.Y. Kennikat, 1981. Stiffler, Randall. Theodore Roethke The Poet and His Critics. Chicago ALA, 1986.