Sunday, September 14, 2014

"Nothing would sleep in that cellar,"

“Root Cellar” by Theodore Roethke was one of his greenhouse poems. His father owned a large greenhouse and much of his childhood was spent inside it" (http://www.enotes.com/homework-help/can-somebody-tell-me-what-this-peom-about-root-373002).

"Nothing would sleep in that cellar," was a perfect start to this short, but descriptive poem. Theodore's poem, "Root Cellar" along with others from the text include a large amount of emotion and imagination, and allow you to feel as if you are living the story of the person he narrates. As the website mentioned, many of his poems are describing his experiences as a young boy at his grandfathers greenhouse, and "Root Cellar" truly made me feel as if I was walking into a musky old cellar, cowardly opening the door, as I shouted, "hello" into the darkness of shadows reflecting from the walls. Let's face it, children don't like basements! Personally, I still don't like basements.


Theodore expresses emotions by saying things like "dank as a ditch" or "hung down long yellow evil necks, like tropical snakes," and encourages the reader to relive his experience with him. When Theodore says such things, I think of a little child that is going alone into a cellar for the first time and flashing a light on every object that is seen?assuming it is one thing, but it is really just their imaginations running freely.

The poem also makes you feel as if you lived during this era too, where people used such places like cellars for storage. "Big Wind" made me feel as if I was living during the Great American Dust Bowl. When the said, "stuffing the home with durlap" it made me think about the large amounts of sand that layered the floor or houses and schools, but when cleaned it would fill the floor again soon after.

Overall, I really enjoyed Theodore's photos because he made them so east to relate too. He also made it easy to play the character and I think every work of art should do this because it keeps the attention of the reader, and the wring gets the credit it deserves. Did anyone else have the same Experience? Were you able to transform yourself into this scared little boy?

1 comment:

  1. Ami,
    Avoid reading websites like enotes and Sparknotes. They are notoriously inaccurate; you have this information in the author info in your textbook and in the weekly presentation; and I want to hear your ideas about what we are reading anyway not the internet's.

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