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Analysis and comments on The Survivor by Theodore Roethke

Comment 6 of 6, added on June 16th, 2005 at 9:54 AM.

I am bewildered to see how the masterpiece "Ocalony", originally written by Tadeusz Różewicz, a Polish poet, in 1947 and translated by Adam Czerniawski as "The Survivor", is being appropriated by/ascribed to an American poet. This poem certainly IS NOT a piece by Theodore Roethke which will hopefully be acknowledged by PoetryConnection.net and its guests.

Dariusz Skórczewski from Poland
Comment 5 of 6, added on June 6th, 2005 at 1:36 AM.

Wow. What a glorious poem. Absolutely beautiful. He addresses that one maddening principal of war (entirely) that it goes against everything we know, or should know, against everything that we were taught or should be taught. The narrator talks about a confusion, where because of the war he can't tell these things apart any more, they are all the same because of the war. Men and animals, love and hate, light and darkness, truth and lies. Now remember the man is only 24. At the end he asks for a teacher, another teacher, to help him figure it all out. He's helpless, and so confused, he needs to separate light from darkness, truth from lies. It's beautiful.

Daniel from Saint Kitts and Nevis
Comment 4 of 6, added on January 13th, 2005 at 3:13 PM.

ok well i think the same but how do u know it was not by him thou?

yancey from United States
Comment 3 of 6, added on January 6th, 2005 at 8:47 AM.

I am a belgian student of slavic filology and must tell you that this poem was actually written by Tadeusz RÓŻEWICZ, a polish poet. His poetics are deeply affected by his traumatic experiences during WW II: in his opinion, all 'traditional' poetry had become impossible, even immoral after WW II.

Robby Vangeel from Belgium
Comment 2 of 6, added on November 19th, 2004 at 4:46 PM.

I think he may be taking on a persona in the poem. Perhaps he's writing as a soldier in WWII.

Amy Cobb from United States
Comment 1 of 6, added on November 5th, 2004 at 10:48 PM.

what is this poem talking about? it sounds as if war. being born in '08 and being 24 years old that only makes the year '36. the only war at that time was the spanish revolution and the chinese/japanese war. what else is he talking about?

paul from United States



Information about The Survivor

Poet: Theodore Roethke
Poem: The Survivor
Added: Feb 20 2003
Viewed: 8251 times


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