In AP English yesterday we relaxed more than usual. As we had at the very beginning of the year we sat in a circle and read and analyzed a poem by Theodore Roethke. This particular poem was entitled, “The Waking”. I can only speak for myself in all honesty, but I got the feeling that we all felt sort of calm as we wound down with these simple verses. I looked around the room feeling no urge to argue or state my opinion immediately- I saw all the faces and thought of us all leaving one by one, dying one by one too. But I was okay with it. I remember polar opposite opinions between two sides of the room when the year began and sensed that all that dissent was trivial and seemed to dissipate. We were all unified inside this very truthful and lovely piece that gently commands us to “take [our] waking slow.”
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.
