Theodore Roethke’s "The Waking", is a villanelle, a poetic form with nineteen lines and a strict

pattern of repetition and a rhyme scheme. The poem talks about human life and gives guidance on how to
live. Roethke uses the words sleep and wake as analogy for death and life. Roethke advises to
acknowledge the truth that life ends in death, and to make the most of life by living within the moment.
Fate is not to be feared but to be embraced; one should not have worry about what cannot be changed.

Roethke also compared tree as a human life. The tree cannot fear its death, nor can it set out to
dodge fate; it must continually live in the moment to survive. The analogy of the tree is extended to
appear that we must grasp one’s environment and regard others. This is further utilized in the line, "God
bless the Ground! I shall walk softly there". It is extended to appear that one must embrace one's
environment and respect others. A tree depends totally on the ground for survival. To respect the tree, he
chooses to walk delicately on the ground. This respect for one's environment and others is an important
value to have in life.

Although, one line is repeated throughout the poem: "I learn by going where I have to go".  This
line states that one earns the most from life by doing one must do, instead of what one need to do. A
person’s beliefs and morals give the driving drive behind our life. A person needs to take after beliefs and
morals instead of needs and wants. Morals guide our thoughts and our activities, without them, we would
be much just like the tree. The tree has no choice but to do what it need to do. It has no morals, nor does it
have needs or wants. Nevertheless, Roethke urge that we have a choice as human being, we are
constrained to select between two choices: what we feel is "right" or what is “comfortable”. And as well
that we should avoid follow our morals so that we can make the most of our lives.

I believe in Mark Twain’s quote: “Always do what is right. It will gratify half of the mankind and
astound the other”. Your life is all about the choice you make. Do not make a choice just for the sake. If
you think something fits you right. Then that would make your life so bright.