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Roethke has been described by Jay Parini "a latter day transcendentalist, finding spiritual correspondences in physical things". He was institutionalised on several occasions for brief periods and liked "to identify himself with 'mad' poets of the past e.g. William Blake, Christopher Smart". When Roethke writes in the last verse above, "this shaking keeps me steady", the words are in keeping with his views of his breakdown as in essence spiritual crisis. There is an echo of this poem in his other poem "words for the Wind" where he writes "What falls away will fall;/ All things bring me love.
Zahra from Australia