when the student leaves them. In an “Elegy for Jane” by Theodore Roethke, the speaker, Jane’s former teacher, reminisces about his former pupil and laments her untimely death. From what is gleaned from “Elegy for Jane,” the speaker’s attitude towards his former student is sincere, adoring, and loving. The speaker’s genuine sincerity towards his student is exemplified by his sorrow over his loss. In a Shakespearean manner, he regrets not being able to “nudge you [Jane] from this sleep,” or in other words
In the poem, "Elegy for Jane", by Theodore Roethke, the speaker articulates his attitude and feelings towards his former student in a well-written, well-articulated elegy. The speaker clearly states these emotions through the use of personification, similes, as well as other literary techniques. With these techniques, the speaker articulates his attitude towads Jane that I interpreted as both intimate and lyrical. After spending much time with this poem, I found that the first nines lines
February 20, 2015 Theodore Roethke's Elegy for Jane: My Student, Thrown by a Horse Theodore Roethke was born in Saginaw in 1908 and grew up in the house now preserved as The Theodore Roethke Home Museum. He worked in his grandfather’s floral company, which his experience there inspired many of his poems. After graduating college, he taught at several colleges. He would later receive a Pulitzer Prize for “The Waking”, which included the short poem “Elegy for Jane”, along with two National Book Awards
soul just disappear or do you fly to the heavens like a bird? In the poem, Elegy for Jane by Theodore Roethke, the narrator is a teacher mourning the loss of a student. In this poem the speaker shows how he admired Jane. The speaker talks about Jane’s youthfulness and her vulnerability. He also describes Jane using various different natural images. The speaker is able to describe the little details about the way that Jane looked. He speaks about how her neck curls were “limp and damp as tendrils”
Ariel Haskins Elegy for Jane Two of the most beautiful combinations, to me, are the use of imagery and metaphors. With the use of these two figures of speech the reader is able to paint a complete, detail picture in their from the piece they are reading. In “Elegy for Jane”, the speaker is standing over the grave of a student, Jane, of his who fell of a horse to her death. Roethke uses imagery and diction, among other figures of speech, to help the reader picture the young Jane that he loved and
There are deeper thoughts and emotions the speaker is experiencing than what poem let’s on. Jane’s teacher is the speaker in Elegy for Jane by Theodore Roethke. The speaker is clearly in dismay that his beloved student is suddenly no longer alive, breathing, and thinking but, could there be deeper darker feelings? Jane’s teacher has a sense of guilt for feeling mournful for Jane. The speaker feels this guilt because to her he was only her teacher nothing more “Over this damp grave I speak my words of
only close family members and friends; however, the outside people, such as teachers, are rarely considered to fully react to a person’s death the way their parents might. A good example of an outside person mourning like this is in the poem “Elegy for Jane” by Theodore Roethke. Throughout this poem it examines the emotional shifts and attitudes that Jane’s teacher faces after the loss of his student. In the first few lines the speaker gives a strong insight of his
hope, freedom, and spiritual purity. Its importance becomes even more significant when the reader understands that even though Jane may have passed away, her inspiring virtues of freedom and morality live on through the birds. Jane is thus not only portrayed by the fanciful wren, but as a “sparrow”, and a “skittery pigeon,” (line 14, 19). Therefore, the virtues representing Jane are also representing nature through these small, delicate creatures. Roethke, of course, is deeply saddened by the sudden
generation. In his poem, “Elegy for Jane”, Roethke uses a variety of poetic devices to express the different themes of love, happiness, and grief. His use of imagery, symbolism, persona, tone and word choice, contribute to the deeper meaning of the poem, assisting in the expression of the speaker’s feelings for Jane and of how, Jane, herself felt. Before the poem begins, the title and epigraph divulge to the reader that the poem is a reminiscence of the speaker’s student, Jane, who died after falling
Critics’ Perspective of Theodore Roethke's Elegy for Jane More than forty years after her untimely death, Jane Bannick breathes again--or so it seems while reading about her. Jane's unfortunate death in an equestrian accident prompted one of her professors, the poet Theodore Roethke, to write a moving poem, "Elegy for Jane," recalling his young student and his feelings of grief at her loss. Opinions appeared almost as soon as Roethke's tribute to Jane, and passages about the poem continue to