Root Cellar by Theodore Roethke

Blog about one poem that you read for today. Explain its denotative and connotative meaning. Discuss its use of imagery and/or figures of speech. Use the checklists to help you think of what to analyze about the poem you selected. Make sure you include specific quotes from the poem. 

Theodore Roethke's poem "Root Cellar" is full of imagery and metaphors. This rich imagery provided insight into how the poet may have intended the poem to be imagined by the reader. The poet apparently spent a lot of time in a large commercial greenhouse run by his family, and the "root cellar" could either be about a greenhouse or literally a cellar. It seems to me that it is about a greenhouse though. The word "root" in the title means plant root, so a root cellar could be a room full of plants. A cellar is used for storage; and what storage room is stuffed full of plants? A greenhouse, of course.

The poem is about the unpleasant surroundings in a greenhouse. The poem evokes a kind of claustrophobic mood - the word "cellar" in the title contributes to this as well. When I imagine a cellar, I imagine a dark, damp place. The last line, "Even the dirt kept breathing a small breath" is a metaphor for the way dirt absorbs oxygen and carbon dioxide from the air. The usage of a metaphor in this line dramatizes the dirt's will for life in the dark, claustrophobic greenhouse full of plants which are also competing for life. The second line "Bulbs broke out of boxes hunting for chinks in the dark" (455) sounds like a metaphor, although plant bulbs really DO hunt for spots of light in darkness.

"Shoots dangled and drooped

Lolling obscenely from mildewed crates

Hung down long yellow evil necks, like tropical snakes. (455)"

These three lines in the poem are rather sinister and recalled to my mind a haunted house. Shoots dangled and drooped evokes a hopeless feeling, like how drooping plants signify its imminent death. "Long yellow evil necks, like tropical snakes" is a simile of plant winding plant stalks and snakes.

When I came to the line "And what a congress of stinks!" (455) the smells that automatically came to mind were of plant compost and fertilizer. This created an unpleasant effect in my mind where a whole jungle of plants are aggressively jostling for space in a small greenhouse and releasing a variety of disgusting smells.

Roethke used described the scene with words like "leaf-mold, manure, lime" - these are words that emphasized the age and the filth of the greenhouse. It is possible that the greenhouse is either not very well kept or has been abandoned for a long time.

Lastly, I noticed that there are lots of slippery "sss" sounds in the poem, like in the last word in some lines - crates, snakes, stinks, planks. Reading the poem, I felt like those words were chosen because they emphasized the words; the sound effects are those that sound indignant and sickened. I could almost imagine the poet's disgust of the greenhouse.

Although I took the poem in the most literal sense, the last two lines in the poem,

"Nothing would give up life;

Even the dirt kept breathing a small breath."

is rather wistful and full of meaning. The poet may not entirely hate the root cellar; he may have some sort of respect for the plants' love of life.