Elegy for Jane Theodore Roethke

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I remember the neckcurls, limp and damp as tendrils,°
And her quick look, a sidelong pickerel° smile;
And how, once startled into talk, the light syllables leaped for her,
And she balanced in the delight of her thought,
A wren, happy, tail into the wind,
Her song trembling the twigs and small branches.
The shade sang with her;
The leaves, their whispers turned to kissing;
And the mold sang in the bleached valleys under the rose.
Oh, when she was sad, she cast herself down into such a
pure depth,
Even a father could not find her:
Scraping her cheek against straw;
Stirring the clearest water.
My sparrow, you are not here,
Waiting like a fern, making a spiny shadow.
The sides of wet stones cannot console me,
Nor the moss, wound with the last light.
If only I could nudge you from this sleep,
My maimed darling, my skittery pigeon.
Over this damp grave I speak the words of my love:
I, with no rights in this matter,
Neither father nor lover.

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Now as the train bears west,
Its rhythm rocks the earth,
And from my pullman berth
I stare into the night
While others take their rest.
Bridges of iron lace,
A suddenness of trees,
A lap of mountain mist
All cross my line of sight,
Then a bleak wasted place,
And a lake below my knees.
Full on my neck I feel
The straining at the curve;
My muscles move with steel,
I wake in every nerve.
I watch a beacon swing
From dark to blazing bright;
We thunder through ravines
And gullies washed with light.
Beyond the mountain pass
Mist deepens on the pane;
We rush into the rain
That rattles double glass.
Wheels shake the roadbed stone,
The pistons jerk and shove.
I stay up half the night
To see the land I love.

Elegy for Jane
1. Describe Jane’s personality. Has Roethke focused on characteristics that you might focus on in a person you love? Explain. (Review your Quickwrite notes.)
2. In the poem, Jane is compared to three birds. Name them, and tell how the comparisons help build an overall impression of the young woman.
3. An elegy is a poem of mourning. Some elegies concentrate fully on the person who has died; others extend their subject to reflect on general matters, such as life, death, beauty, even politics. Which type of elegy is Roethke’s poem? Explain.
4. The poem’s speaker says he has “no rights in this matter” (line 21). In your own words, explain what he means. Do you think he is correct? Why or why not?

Night Journey
1. What image in the poem strikes you as especially powerful or memorable? Explain.
2. Roethke uses figurative language to convey the physical intensity of the journey. Which lines suggest a kind of fusion between the speaker, the speeding train, and the countryside?
3. Read “Night Journey” aloud, emphasizing its rhythm. How does the rhythm give you the feeling of being on a train?
4. What are the speaker’s attitudes toward the train and toward the land? Are his feelings similar to those you noted in your Quickwrite?