The Waking

"The Waking" is a poem written by Theodore Roethke in 1953 in the form of a villanelle. It comments on the unknowable ^[1] with a contemplative tone. It also has been interpreted as comparing life to waking and death to sleeping. ^[2]

In popular culture

• The poem appears as an object in Kurt Vonnegut's novel Slaughterhouse-Five .
• An excerpt of the poem also appears at the beginning of Dean Koontz's novel Odd Hours .
• Kurt Elling sings the poem on his 2007 album Nightmoves .
• Quoted by the psycho cop in Stephen King's novel Desperation .
• Quoted in Dana Simpson's "Ozy and Millie."
• Quoted in John Le Carré's The Russia House

References

1. Archived June 13, 2003, at the Wayback Machine
2. The Waking by Theodore Roethke. Poetry Foundation. Retrieved 16 August 2013

External links

• Source text
• Secondary source of the text