"In A Dark Time" by Theodore Roethke

Mea culpa: The first line ("In a dark time, the eye begins to see) actually scans as: pyrrhic, spondee, iamb, iamb, iamb. Topics discussed in this episode include: -How to pronounce (or not) this dude's name-Romanticism-Romanticism's problem child, Confessional poetry-Mysticism via mental illness-Meter and rhyme zaniness-Two new kinds of feet!-Paradoxes thrust one into figurative interpretations-Darkness and Light-Dante cameo! -Biblical allusions-The tasteful use of personification-Imitative instances of awesome alliteration-Neurotypical normativity and Foucault-Psychedelic psychosis-Ego, Ego death, dissociation-Existential crisis via identity crisis-Pantheism returns! -...or does it? Text of poem: In A Dark TimeIn a dark time, the eye begins to see, I meet my shadow in the deepening shade; I hear my echo in the echoing wood—A lord of nature weeping to a tree. I live between the heron and the wren,Beasts of the hill and serpents of the den.What’s madness but nobility of soulAt odds with circumstance? The day’s on fire!I know the purity of pure despair, My shadow pinned against a sweating wall.That place among the rocks—is it a cave, Or winding path? The edge is what I have. A steady storm of correspondences!A night flowing with birds, a ragged moon, And in broad day the midnight come again!A man goes far to find out what he is—Death of the self in a long, tearless night,All natural shapes blazing unnatural light.Dark, dark my light, and darker my desire. My soul, like some heat-maddened summer fly, Keeps buzzing at the sill. Which I is I? A fallen man, I climb out of my fear.The mind enters itself, and God the mind, And one is One, free in the tearing wind. Art by David Anthony Klug Support the showVISIT MY WEBSITE HERE.BUY VERSECRAFT MERCH HERE.VISIT THE VERSECRAFT SUBSTACK HERE.Please subscribe, rate, and review! Thanks so much for listening.You can leave me a tip, support the podcast, or request a commission here! TikTok:  @versecraftSend me a note at: [email protected] favorite poetry podcasts for: Sharp thoughts and cutting truths (Matthew): Sleerickets  Lovely introspection and sensitive reflection (Alice): Poetry Says The landscape of Ohioan poetry (Jeremy): Poetry Spotlight  Supported in part by The Ohio Poetry AssociationArt by David Anthony KlugList of the most common metrical feet: Iamb: weak-STRONG (u /)Trochee: STRONG-weak (/ u)Anapest: weak-weak-STRONG (u u /)Amphibrach: weak-STRONG-weak (u / u)Dactyl: STRONG-weak-weak (/ u u)Cretic: STRONG-weak-STRONG (/ u /)Pyrrhic: weak-weak (u u)Spondee: STRONG-STRONG (/ /)