Poem of the Week

Most of the poems I’ve posted here so far have been free verse– my usual preferred mode for both reading and writing poetry.  But this is one of the best examples I’ve seen of the complicated villanelle form: a 19 line poem consisting of five three-line stanzas followed by a concluding four-line stanza.  Villanelles feature an ABA rhyme scheme, as well as two lines that repeat throughout, alternating as the last line of each stanza.  Got that?

Complex structure aside, it’s a beautiful poem, the last stanza of which makes for a good mantra.  Thanks to my dad, who sent this to me at the beginning of my freshman year of college, when it seemed quite apropos.

The Waking

by Theodore Roethke

I 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 do
To 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.

Related posts:

1. Poem of the Week: Song
2. Poem of the Week: The Peace of Wild Things
3. Poem of the Week