Theodore Roethke quotes: top famous quotes and sayings by Theodore Roethke

Top Theodore Roethke Quotes

Browse top 27 most favorite famous quotes and sayings by Theodore Roethke.

Favorite Theodore Roethke Quotes

1. "The WakingI wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.I feel my fate in what I cannot fear.I learn by going where I have to go.We think by feeling. What is there to know?I hear my being dance from ear to ear.I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.Of those so close beside me, which are you?God bless the Ground! I shall walk softly there,And learn by going where I have to go.Light takes the Tree; but who can tell us how?The lowly worm climbs up a winding stair;I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.Great Nature has another thing to doTo you and me, so take the lively air,And, lovely, learn by going where to go.This shaking keeps me steady. I should know.What falls away is always. And is near.I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.I learn by going where I have to go." ~ Theodore Roethke

2. "By daily dying, I have come to be." ~ Theodore Roethke

3. "What's madness but nobility of soulAt odds with circumstance? The day's on fire!I know the purity of pure despair,My shadow pinned against a sweating wall,That place among the rocks--is it a cave,Or winding path? The edge is what I have............... Dark,dark my light, and darker my desire.My soul, like some heat-maddened summer fly,Keeps buzzing at the sill.~From "The Waking" by Theodore Roethke" ~ Theodore Roethke

4. "Those who are willing to be vulnerable move among mysteries." ~ Theodore Roethke

5. "I wake to sleep and take my waking slow. I feel my fate in what I cannot fear. I learn by going whereI have to go.....Great Nature has another thing to doTo you and me, so take the lively air,And, lovely, learn by going where to go." ~ Theodore Roethke

6. "I learned not to fear infinity,The far field, the windy cliffs of forever,The dying of time in the white light of tomorrow,The wheel turning away from itself,The sprawl of the wave,The on-coming water." ~ Theodore Roethke

7. "The stones were sharp,The wind came at my back;Walking along the highway, Mincing like a cat." ~ Theodore Roethke

8. "Deep in their roots all flowers keep the light." ~ Theodore Roethke

9. "Art is the means we have of undoing the damage of haste. It's what everything else isn't." ~ Theodore Roethke

10. "The darkness has it's own light." ~ Theodore Roethke

11. "May my silences become more accurate." ~ Theodore Roethke

12. "Over every mountain, there is a path, although it may not be seen from the valley." ~ Theodore Roethke

13. "How body from spirit slowly does unwind, until we are pure spirit at the end." ~ Theodore Roethke

14. "So much of adolescence is an ill-defined dying,An intolerable waiting,A longing for another place and time,Another condition." ~ Theodore Roethke

15. "In this place of light: he dares to liveWho stops being a bird, yet beats his wingsAgainst the immense immeasurable emptiness of things." ~ Theodore Roethke

16. "What falls away is always. And is near." ~ Theodore Roethke

17. "A mind too active is no mind at all." ~ Theodore Roethke

18. "Pain wanders through my bones like a lost fire" ~ Theodore Roethke

19. "I long for the imperishable quiet at the heartof form." ~ Theodore Roethke

20. "I have gone into the waste lonely places" ~ Theodore Roethke

21. "Nothing would give up life:Even the dirt keeps breathing a small breath." ~ Theodore Roethke

22. "All lovers live by longing, and endure:Summon a vision and declare it pure." ~ Theodore Roethke

23. "(I measure time by how a body sways.)" ~ Theodore Roethke

24. "The fields stretch out in long unbroken rows.We walk aware of what is far and close.Here distance is familiar as a friend.The feud we kept with space comes to an end." ~ Theodore Roethke

25. "A wave of Time hangs motionless on this particular shore.I notice a tree, arsenical grey in the light, or the slowWheel of the stars, the Great Bear glittering colder than snow,And remember there was something else I was hoping for." ~ Theodore Roethke

26. "My Papa's Waltz:The whiskey on your breathCould make a small boy dizzy;But I hung on like death:Such waltzing was not easy.We romped until the pansSlid from the kitchen shelf;My mother's countenanceCould not unfrown itself.The hand that held my wristWas battered on one knuckle;At every step you missedMy right ear scraped a buckle.You beat time on my headWith a palm caked hard by dirt,Then waltzed me off to bedStill clinging to your shirt." ~ Theodore Roethke

27. "Dark, dark my light, and darker my desire.My soul, like some heat-maddened summer fly,Keeps buzzing at the sill. Which I is I?" ~ Theodore Roethke

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