Theodore Roethkes Poem Sale :: essays research papers

When you first read it, Theodore Roethkes verse Sale seems like it is somewhat a house that is empty and for sales event. The metaphors, similes, connotation, and personification show the sadness of the house and the more important point. The poem is actu in ally about the death of a gramps and everything in the house seems to remind him of his grandfather and how his grandfather was an disgraceful man to him and the rest of his family. He is trying to let go disconnected memories. In the beginning of the poem Roethke writes, -And an attic of horrors, a closet of fears. (1.4). This is where you cacography to feel that the poem is about something more. He uses metaphors to describe the house, or in this case, what may have happened in the house. Roethke starts by saying that this house is for sale and he describes it like a regular house, but then all of these thoughts just hitting the reader. It is not scarce yet clear that it may have been a death or whose death it was . But you arouse see that something had to have happened to fill the attic with horrors and to fill the closet with fears. It gives the feel or sense of a death but doesnt exactly say it. These things remind the author of bad things and bad memories. It just gives the poem an eerie connotation right there at the beginning of the poem. in that respect is more that reveals what Roethke is trying to say. Roethke writes, The summer house shaped like a village band stand/And grandfathers sinister hovering hand. (2.3,2.4). Roethke starts again by describing the house and things in it. And once again the reader gets hit with these thoughts. He uses a simile to describe the house as a village bandstand. A house that is alone and one of those places you go to getaway. The more important thing is that he uses a metaphor to say -And grandfathers sinister hovering hand. He remembers that about the house. This is where the reader gets the thought that his grandfather was an abusive man. Roet hke remembers that sinister hovering hand right before he was physically hurt. Like he is looking at the house and he is comprehend the hand, because he was scarred with these memories. Roethke describes his pain furthermore in the next stanza.