Read the poem cited below(carefully), an elegy written on behalf of one of Roethke’s students who died. In a well- conceived essay (minimum of 5 paragraph), discuss the poems intentions/ meanings. Explore sounds and rhythms…and, ultimately, meanings. Remember, i am looking for your best arguments. you may use the line numbers which i have added to assist you as you make your references to specific points.
Elegy for Jane by Theodore Roethke
(My student, thrown by a horse)
I remember the neckcurls, limp and damp as tendrils; 1
And her quick look, a sidelong pickerel smile; 2
And how, once startled into talk, the light syllables leaped for her, 3
And she balanced in the delight of her thought, 4
A wren, happy, tail into the wind, 5
Her song trembling the twigs and small branches. 6
The shade sang with her; 7
The leaves, their whispers turned to kissing, 8
And the mould sang in the bleached valleys under the rose. 9
Oh, when she was sad, she cast herself down into such a pure depth, 10
Even a father could not find her: 11
Scraping her cheek against straw, 12
Stirring the clearest water. 13
My sparrow, you are not here, 14
Waiting like a fern, making a spiney shadow. 15
The sides of wet stones cannot console me, 16
Nor the moss, wound with the last light. 17
If only I could nudge you from this sleep, 18
My maimed darling, my skittery pigeon. 19
Over this damp grave I speak the words of my love: 20
I, with no rights in this matter, 21
Neither father nor lover. 22