Imagery Coming to Life In Theodore Roethke's poem titled, "Root Cellar," the reader is provided a scene describing a musty, earthy, root-infested cellar. The root cellar is dark and cluttered, yet Roethke goes on to list all of the activity happening within it. Nothing was staying still in that smelly cellar. Light bulbs were falling out of their boxes, searching for cracks of open light. The smell was rancid, catching the attention of anyone who wandered down into the darkness. Pulpy stems and roots wrapped and bundled among the walls while mold and manure piled up against the wet, wooden floor planks. None of the items would allow themselves to be forgotten. Packed into this short lyrical poem are literary elements such as imagery, alliteration, and personification that evoke the senses of the ready and bring this poem to life. Through these elements, Roethke describes the ability for life to sustain itself even in the most somber and unexpected environments.
In the first line of the poem the reader is provided with the subject, a cellar dank as a ditch. Here in the very first line, it is important to understand why Roethke chose to use the word, "cellar." He could have called it a basement, but cellar makes the reader imagine a much darker and muskier underground room. The reader now has a better understanding of the main subject of the poem and can picture a clear image of the cellar in their head. Roethke chooses to establish the subject in the first line to set the scene for the reader going forward. He wants the reader to think back to a time when maybe they have experienced an old root cellar themselves first hand. Having experienced a similar situation before, the reader will be able to better connect with the following lines of the poem.
Understanding the subject of the poem helps the reader decide who the speaker is. Based on the conceptual questions listed below the poem in the text book, the reader is told that Roethke spent a lot of time in his younger years working in a greenhouse that was ran by his family in Saginaw, Michigan....
