The Eliot influence: Theodore Roethke's North American sequence as alternative to Four quartets.

Abstract

This study examines the influence of T. S. Eliot and the effect of his Four Quartets on Theodore Roethke and his "North American Sequence," one of Roethke' s last major sequences. That Eliot held a position of predominance over poetry in the 1940s and early 50s, the period which marks the ascent of Roethke's career, is evident after the publication of Quartets in 1943. By 1950, Eliot had published Quartets, had received the Nobel Prize in literature, and had begun production of several successful plays. The praise in the reviews of Quartets, coupled with an expanding level of criticism, established Quartets as a poem of major importance, and by 1950, Eliot's dominance over poetry was universally recognized, although some critics and poets deplored Eliot's preeminent position. Roethke, embarking on a career at this time, could not have ignored the hold Eliot held over poetry. Evidence from Roethke's publications up to "North American Sequence, " from his letters, notebooks, and other prose, confirms that Roethke was very much aware of Eliot. A theory which describes Roethke's relationship with ElIot Is offered by Stephen Spender: love-hate. Roethke's competitive view of lIterature led him to criticize, sometimes vehemently, ElIot and his poetry. However, such strong criticism was at the same time allied with Roethke's respect for Eliot as a poet and a thinker, as indicated by his frequent references to ElIot In major poems and sequences. Roethke's love-hate attitude toward Eliot also described his attitude toward Quartets. While he recognized its Important place in poetry written after World War IT, he also felt that the meditative, abstract tone of Quartets led to major flaws in the poem. One flaw concerned the form of Quartets. Roethke felt that Eliot's abstract tone led to weak or "tired" rhythms In the poem. He also felt that Eliot's philosophical, speculative terminology failed to engage the reader. The result was that Quartets, Roethke felt, was undramatic and therefore unengrosslng to the reader. In order to address many of the themes of Quartets, yet avoid thiS flaw In form, Roethke cultivated free verse techniques, sought a concrete vocabulary, and relied heavily on Images to convey meaning. These are evident In the form of "North American Sequence." Roethke, In "North American Sequence" addresses similar themes as Quartets, In particular, the subjects of time and death. However, Roethke's treatment of these themes Is In marked contrast to their treat ment in Quartets. While Eliot offers a skeleton of his autobiography in the titles of each of the Quartets, Roethke fully and explicitly uses personal memories and autobiographic details in "North American Sequence." While one of Eliot's themes in Quartets is the inadequacy of a temporal, linear understanding of time to resolve the inevitability of death, Roethke chooses to immerse the persona of "North American Sequence" into simple linear time. Last, while Eliot uses symbols such as the four elements and the rose in Quartets, he uses them impersonally, preferring their meaning to derive from their context in the poem. Roethke uses similar symbols in "North American Sequence, " but by contrast, their meaning is always the result of the memories and experiences of the poet which are also a part of the poem. Their context in the sequence is personal. While Roethke alludes to Quartets in several places in "North American Sequence," his allusions always lead to the rejection of Quartets and its statements on time and death. The difference between the poems suggests a division which has significance beyond differences in the two poets. Eliot, by positing a separate order beyond the order of personal experience, allies himself with a Puritanistic world view. Roethke, by preferring to find an enlightening order in the natural world about him, aligns himself with the Transcendentalism of Emerson and Whitman.