The Waking by Theodore Roetheke
As the speaker awakens from deep sleep, he comes back into consciousness very slowly and in a temporary state of fogginess and confusion. As this occurs, he contemplates life very closely in a way that makes readers engage with his concern about how their lives are being lived. In The Waking by Theodore Roetheke, the author constantly refers to fate in order to emphasize his belief that life is predestined, which makes the audience question how their lives should ultimately be viewed. Repetition is a key tool that the author utilizes to emphasize the idea of having a predestined life. The first and last lines of the first stanza are constantly being repeated throughout the entire work. Roetheke says, “I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow, I learn by going where I have to go” (Roetheke 1,3). If life were predestined, then the outcome and experiences of his or her life would have already been planned and written out. The equivalent occurs as the author continuously writes these lines over and over again: they have already been written out. The first line, “I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow” (1), displays a paradox, because being awake and asleep are polar opposites from each other. Using these two contrasting words together in a sentence forms a pattern, as one must wake up to …show more content…
By reading The Waking by Theodore Roetheke, readers have the ability to explore his idea that life is predestined. Throughout the entire poem, the author portrays this idea of pre destiny by utilizing ideas of fate by repetition, life and death, and rhetorical questions, which ultimately spark curiosity in the readers’ minds. This curiosity makes readers think about their lives actually being planned in advance. It generates an eagerness to the audience to explore his thoughts as he slowly awakened from a deep
As the speaker awakens from deep sleep, he comes back into consciousness very slowly and in a temporary state of fogginess and confusion. As this occurs, he contemplates life very closely in a way that makes readers engage with his concern about how their lives are being lived. In The Waking by Theodore Roetheke, the author constantly refers to fate in order to emphasize his belief that life is predestined, which makes the audience question how their lives should ultimately be viewed. Repetition is a key tool that the author utilizes to emphasize the idea of having a predestined life. The first and last lines of the first stanza are constantly being repeated throughout the entire work. Roetheke says, “I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow, I learn by going where I have to go” (Roetheke 1,3). If life were predestined, then the outcome and experiences of his or her life would have already been planned and written out. The equivalent occurs as the author continuously writes these lines over and over again: they have already been written out. The first line, “I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow” (1), displays a paradox, because being awake and asleep are polar opposites from each other. Using these two contrasting words together in a sentence forms a pattern, as one must wake up to …show more content…
By reading The Waking by Theodore Roetheke, readers have the ability to explore his idea that life is predestined. Throughout the entire poem, the author portrays this idea of pre destiny by utilizing ideas of fate by repetition, life and death, and rhetorical questions, which ultimately spark curiosity in the readers’ minds. This curiosity makes readers think about their lives actually being planned in advance. It generates an eagerness to the audience to explore his thoughts as he slowly awakened from a deep