Theodore Roethke (May 25, 1908 to August 1, 1963). This American poet, was born in Saginaw, Michigan from folk he described as "austere German Americans [who] turned their love of order and their terrifying efficiency into something beautiful." Roethke is widely regarded, by his fellow artists, as a great poet. Auden praised his writing. So did Edith
Sitwell. He was certainly not an artist who was ahead of his time.
In a poem "Where knock is open wide" Roethke wrote
"A kitten can
Bite with his feet.
...."
Roethke told his students that a function of poetry was to "give a cat its right name." And perhaps that is why he discarded this line from a draft---
"A piece of a mouse/ The cat wouldn't eat."
We learn these details from his biography, The Glass House: The Life of Theodore Roethke, by Allen Seager (1968). Roethke won a Pulitzer for his poetry in 1954.
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