Theodore Roethke’s “The Waking” starts with a contradiction, a paradox; the line “I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow” is a merger of both worlds, it sets the tone and subject for the poem where such paradoxes can exist. As you read the first line there is a repetition of consonant sounds as if it was a song that was trying to make you fall asleep. In line 2 “I feel my fate in what I cannot fear” there is alliteration with the letter “F”. In this line the author talks about feeling fate, but what does that mean? And how does he relate it to fear? The Author reaches a new awareness and makes this the most intriguing line in the poem. How does one feel fate? Is it to vast to be felt, has the speaker come to an understanding in that life cannot be changed and has accepted that his life is…show more content… The fourth line continues “We think by feeling. What is there to know?” This brings up another paradox in thinking by feeling. Two very different perceptions in people, but here the author brings them together. Does he imply that we as people are emotional beings who act on feeling? Are our judgments clouded by emotion? Then he closes the line with a question “What is there to know?” What is the speaker asking for here? Is he asking us to question everything there is to know or is he asking that there isn’t much left to know? The following line “I hear my being dance from ear to ear.” Is a description of how the speaker feels, from ear to ear is a way to describe a smile. The immediate place where you can imagine where the speaker is; is in his own mind, his being is what he is hearing and he is dancing. Line six is a repetition of a previous line (line 1) which brings a familiarity like a chorus in a song; its purpose is to remind you of the progress of the speaker’s thoughts in his poem. The impression is of a happy awareness the speaker has