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Essay on I Knew a Woman by Theodore Roethke
Nothing is more personal than an individual’s work of poetry. By reading the poetry of another person, you are able to see what they see and feel what they feel. It is like looking through a window of their soul.
The strongest series of puns in the poem begins in the last three lines of the first stanza and continues throughout other sections as well. "Of her choice virtues only gods should speak, or English poets who grew up on Greek." (Web, 1) These lines set up the continuing references to Greek choral odes in stanza two. In line 9, Roethke gives us, "She taught me Turn, and Counter-turn, and Stand." Those three terms, in addition to their sexual suggestiveness, are the English equivalent of the Greek strophe, antistrophe, and epode.
Apparently the woman, by her movement, becomes a kind of Muse whose turn and re-turn serve as inspiration for the poet’s turns of language. Stanza three continues with these sexual double meanings, "Love likes a gander, and adores a goose." (Web, 1) It is not evident whether Roethke is referring to flocks of geese or sly looks and crude gropes. Line 16 also has many connotations. "The errant note to seize" (Web, 1) can mean a wrong musical note (musical puns again), or, more likely, to take advantage of an adventuring emotion. Roethke’s lady is clearly in control of this sexual encounter, since she is doing the seizing, the puckering, and is playing the role of the sickle (the tool doing the actual mowing). "She played it quick, she played it light and loose," (Web, 1) continues her domination of the situation..................
