Poetry Quote by Theodore Roethke — Inspiring Words on Life, Love & Wisdom

“My Papa's Waltz:”

“What's madness but nobility of soul”

“What is madness but nobility of the soul at odds with circumstance.”

“In a dark time, the eye begins to see.”

“Art is the means we have of undoing the damage of haste. It's what everything else isn't.”

“I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.”

“My best testimonies are from the times I thought I couldn't survive.”

“I began composing the next poem, the one that was to be written next. Not the last poem of those I had read, but the poem written in the head of someone who may never have existed but who had certainly written another poem nonetheless, and just never had the chance to commit it to ink and the page.”

“Thing were falling apart. We just could not slow down. We were evolving into something greater, perhaps too much for our own good. And one thing always remained as I moved on. I saved a little bit of love just in case you would ever return home.”

“Άλλα ζητεί η ψυχή σου, γι’ άλλα κλαίει·”

“I have no heart? Perhaps I have not; / But then you're mad to take offense / That I don't give you what I have not got; / Use your own common sense.”

“It is time to float on the waters of the night.”