How Did Walt Whitman Influence Theodore Roethke's Life

The Influence of Life A poet. An influence. A poem. Many poets in the twentieth century have many influences in how they write and what they write about. Theodore Roethke was one of those poets. He found influences from many people, things, and life events. Theodore Roethke found influence in William Wordsworth, Walt Whitman, and his family. Theodore Roethke had many up and downs in his life. Theodore was born on May 25, 1908. His father owned a green house with his brother which Theodore fell in love with. The family would sell the greenhouse later in his life. After that, his father would die of cancer and his uncle would commit suicide. He remembered his father by the rocky relationship he had with him. As a result, he would use poetry to put out his emotions out. Once he graduated college he started to write poetry regularly. Roethke really wanted to be recognized for his work and because of that he developed manic-depressive disorder that was to haunt him for the rest of his life. Later on in life he started to write the best …show more content…
Roethke has shown the influence of Whitman in some of his works such as “North American Sequence”. Roethke uses Whitman’s playfulness, irony, and comic relief. Roethke realized, just like Whitman, these qualities are necessary in a long work in which it is impossible to maintain a single tone. Also, Roethke was influenced by Whitman’s mysticism. Again, in “North American Sequence”, he shows his influence by him trying to make himself one with everything around him and try to be not self-conscious. They both feel like they need to be free from the body by extending into the landscape. Roethke does seem like he wants to read what other poets have to help better improve his works and his skills in poetry and writing (Chavkin,Allan). Although, for his themes of his poems he likes to use what happen in his life to influence what he writes