ELEGY FOR JANE

Theodore Roethke

Theodore Huebner Roethke hardly fits anyone’s image of the stereotypical high-minded poet-intellectual of the 1940s through 1960s. Born in Saginaw, Michigan, his father was a German immigrant who owned and ran a 25-acre greenhouse. Though as a child he read a great deal and as a high school freshman he had a Red Cross campaign speech translated into 26 languages, he suffered from issues of abandonment and loss, and his lack of self-esteem led him to strive to be accepted by peers. When he was 14, his father died of cancer and his uncle committed suicide. He attended the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, where he adopted a tough, bear-like image (weighing over 225 pounds) and even developed a fascination with gangsters. Eccentric and nonconformist—he later called himself “odious” and “unhappy”—Roethke desired for a friend with whom he could talk and relate his ambitions. Poet and writer James Dickey once named Roethke the greatest of all American poets: “I don't see anyone else that has the kind of deep, gut vitality that Roethke's got. Whitman was a great poet, but he's no competition for Roethke.” His difficult childhood, his bouts with manic depression, and his ceaseless search for truth through his poetry writing led to a difficult life, but also helped to produce a remarkable body of work that would influence future generations of American poets to pursue the mysteries of one’s inner self. In 1923, the death of his father shaped his creative and artistic outlooks. Being an American poet he published several volumes of award winning and critically acclaimed poetry. Roethke is regarded as one of the most accomplished and influential poets of his generation.

The poem is short in its length in which a teacher reflects on the death of one of his former students. We the audience, can tell he has lost a student as it is stated in the title, (My Student, Thrown by a horse). He is heartbroken over the tragic event. One thing that is unclear is the nature of the relationship between the teacher and student. The two most common thoughts about this are that he is either a pedophile (an adult who is sexually attracted to children) who stalks (chases) young girls, or that he is a very sad man who is simply reflecting on the loss of one of his students. He is acting, as a teacher should: truly caring for his students (more specifically Jane), and in the least romantic way possible.  

“Elegy for Jane,” subtitled “My Student, Thrown by a Horse,” is written in free verse whose twenty-two lines are divided into four stanzas. The poem follows the elegiac tradition insofar as it mourns the death of a loved one. In the first two stanzas, the speaker, a man who is Jane's teacher, is speaking to a general audience about his memories of Jane as a youthful, emotional girl. This reminiscence juxtaposes with the last three stanzas, in which the speaker, while standing over Jane's grave, expresses to her the sorrow he experiences due to her death.

The first nine lines follow the custom of honoring the deceased by describing Jane’s gracefulness and youthful energy. Roethke describes Jane as a light, quick animal, and the essence of the love in nature. Her neck curls (bends) are damp (wet) as plant tendrils (stems), trailing, winding, and new. Quick and nervous in her movements, Jane’s smile was nonetheless wide as a fish’s (“pickerel”). Jane was also shy, for she had to be startled (amazed/frightened) into talking. Once she started talking, however, she showed that she delighted in her thoughts. These lines may be suggesting to Roethke’s calling on her in class and her corresponding pleasure in answering. When she was happy, Jane was like a bird with its tail in the wind; her song was so energetic that small branches trembled. The courage and adventurousness that cause a tail to be immersed in wind imply a daring that might have resulted in Jane’s is being thrown to her death by a horse. Jane’s vitality was so inspiring that all nature rejoiced in her cheerfulness, even gloomy natural items such as shade and mold (rust/decay). Jane’s happiness was so beneficent that the leaves turned to kissing.

The first stanza also introduces a common theme to the poem: birds. Throughout the poem, the teacher refers to Jane as three different birds: a wren, a sparrow, and a pigeon. The significance of these birds is simple. They are all grey: a very earthy and basic color that adequately describes the personality of Jane.

The tone of the fourth stanza changes drastically from the first three stanzas. What were once fond memories of a student turn into the harsh reality that she is gone. The speaker says, “My sparrow, you are not here (14).” Throughout this stanza, the speaker is standing over Jane’s grave, talking to her in a tone that suggests he is speaking to a lost loved one. He also makes many references to earth and nature such as, “Waiting like a fern (leaf/branch), my spiny shadow (15),” and “The sides of wet stones cannot console me (16).” This line further solidifies (hardens) that he is torn by the loss of a student.  

Though it is the shortest of the three stanzas of the poem, the fifth is the most telling of them. The speaker begins losing his tranquility (calm) saying, “If only I could nudge (poke at) you from this sleep, my maimed (hurt) darling (18, 19).” At this point, the exact details of the relationship between the teacher and student may become confusing. The last lines of the poem read, “Over this damp grave I speak my words of love: I, with no rights in this matter, Neither father nor lover (20, 21, 22).” The first part may be a bit misleading, but it becomes apparent that he is not in any kind of relationship with the girl. He claims he cannot know what it would be like to be in the shoes of her lover, or her father for that matter. The speaker’s meaning is definite and clear. The relationship between the teacher and the student was purely professional, and nothing more. He had absolutely no romantic interactions with the girl, and it is plainly that simple.

To conclude this poem emphasises the theme of innocence when describing the young girl, using repeated comparisons to animals and plants. The act of losing something so pure, so innocent, so perfect, makes the loss of the girl's life so much harder on the speaker. While it is normally prudent (careful and sensible) to question the reliability of a narrator, it is quite evident that the speaker in Elegy is speaking from the most deep and innermost part of his heart. Even the title, Elegy shows that there is a certain admiration for the dead girl, as an elegy is most often heard at a funeral, a place of utmost respect.

The speaker successfully presents a portrait of his thoughts as he stands at the deceased Jane's grave on a rainy day. First, he nostalgically recalls images of Jane in her youthful life, followed by laments about her death. Additionally, although he is not her father or lover, he was her teacher who cared for her and admired her.  Throughout the poem, the speaker laments the loss of a person who was filled with energy and life by detailing her emotional extremes and telling of his pain due to her death.