Theodore Roethke's In A Dark Time

When considering Theodore Roethke's "In a Dark Time," it is necessary to first consider the poet. Roethke was known to have often lived in "dark times". Whether it be emotional, spiritual, or mental the struggle was a familiar one marked by periods of psychosis. This confessional poem may very well be a window into such a time of Roethke's life. A window through which Roethke reveals that darkness, as daunting as it may be, is not eternal and though one may not emerge into light, one may emerge into wholeness. It is not surprising, then, that Roethke seems to believe that the darkness is necessary; it isn't until there is no way out that escape is realized or until one falls to despair that one may rise to where they aspire to be, this is explained simply by the line [In a dark time, the eye begins to see.] Communicating this in the first stanza, the poet …show more content…
Sharing only near rhymes are the third, second, and fourth stanza with ("soul" and "wall") ("correspondences" and "what he is—") and ("desire" and "fear"). These near rhymes solidify that the poet is struggling to control himself and the poem, however he regains his composure in the strongly rhyming last couplet of each stanza. Achieving these rhymes in the last couplets reestablishes the poem and the reader as it takes both away from the formlessness. Roethke is consistent with his idea that to endure the times of darkness is to unveil or arrive to a new kind of wholeness to the end. In the last two lines of the poem he breaks free from the, by now, predictable abcadd rhyme scheme and brings forth a unexpected near rhyme ("mind" and "wind"). In doing so the poet achieved two things. The first, is that if any reader thought they had his poem figured out, they now, in this last couplet, were proved wrong. He has also managed to accurately portray to the reader the sensation of emerging from distress to wholeness that the poet is