Root Cellar: Theodore Roethke

Poem: Root Cellar by Theodore Roethke

About the Poet

      Theodore Roethke (1908–1963) was an American poet known for his deeply emotional and introspective verses. Born in Michigan, he often drew inspiration from nature, his childhood experiences, and the complexities of the human mind. Roethke's poetry explores themes of identity, love, and the connection between the self and the natural world. His work is characterized by vivid imagery and a keen sense of rhythm, reflecting his background in music and dance. Some of his notable collections include The Lost Son" and The Waking," which won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1954.

Main Theme of the Poem

"Root Cellar" by Theodore Roethke explores the mysterious atmosphere of an underground vegetable storage. The poet vividly portrays the dark, damp cellar through rich sensory imagery. This poem explores the interconnectedness of life and death, depicting the storage space as a womb-like environment where the cycles of nature and decay intertwine. The verses remind a primal energy and convey the cyclical nature of existence, creating a haunting yet fascinating exploration of life's fundamental rhythms.

Summary of the poem

In the first part of this poem, the speaker begins by referring to the cellar” as “dank as a ditch.” This simile ensures that readers are immediately made aware of what the room is like. It’s not somewhere that anyone would want to spend any amount of time, even to sleep for one night. Not only would a human being be disgusted by the idea of spending any time down there, but the speaker also implies that any living thing would detest the place.

Throughout his first lines, the reader should take note of Roethke’s use of language. He intentionally chooses words like “dank,” “dangled,” and “drooped” to evoke a particular reaction from the reader. This is furthered through his description of the plant life, the only living thing that manages to survive down there. These “bulbs” and “shoots” break out of boxes and make their way, seen through the poet’s use of personification, through the dark. By describing the plants as “lolling obscenely,” the speaker is intentionally trying to evoke a feeling of disgust in the reader. The poet could’ve phrased all of these lines differently in an effort to make the cellar more interesting and entrancing than it is dark and gross, but that was not his intention.

There is another example of a simile in line five. Here, the poet compares the long, hanging shapes of the plants to “tropical snakes.” This fills them with a sense of danger and creates a more exotic atmosphere. The plants are surviving but not in a way that evokes the speaker’s (or the readers’) admiration for the tenacity of nature, at least not yet.

In the next lines, using easy-to-read and straightforward language, the poet emphasizes the “congress,” or collection, of smells. Coming from the cellar are a wide variety of smells that are too numerous and strange for him to categorize. They are coming from the various plant matter that is at once thriving and decaying. He mentions some of the many sources of the smell in the following lines. The alliteration that Roethke uses throughout comes through clearly in these final lines as he lists out the “Leaf-mold” and “lime” as well as the “Roots ripe as old bait.” 

Everything in the cellar is decaying and stinking so much that one would not think plants could be the source. Without providing readers with too much detail, the speaker implies that the cellar is filled (probably in a somewhat hyperbolic fashion), up with “manure, line, piled against slippery planks.” Despite the speaker’s description of plants decaying and the inhospitable nature of the cellar, he concludes the poem by noting that nothing would give up life. Despite the wet, dirty, and generally horrible conditions of his root cellar, the plants that do reside there are hearty. They are determined to live, no matter the circumstances.

Possible Questions

1.     What are the themes in ‘Root Cellar?’

The themes at work in this poem are nature and survival. Despite the conditions that the plants live in within the speaker’s root cellar, they continue to live, weaving their way through the rafters and up the walls. Without stating it explicitly, the speaker implies that he is impressed, as well as disgusted, by the variety of life that resides there.

2.     What is the purpose of ‘Root Cellar ’?

The purpose is to entertain and intrigue readers. While most of the poem is crafted to catch the reader’s attention and help them to imagine a particularly gross root cellar, by the end of the text, the reader should feel interested in the fact that life can survive in the most inhospitable of conditions. The poem is an engaging and exciting description of the variety of plant life that lives in a root cellar. At the same time, the speaker is interested in inspiring readers to appreciate the tenacity of this kind of life, despite the terrible and even disgusting conditions in which it thrives.

3.     What is the message of ‘Root Cellar ’? 

The message is that life can find a way to survive even in the worst conditions. Although most of the poem is focused on the speaker’s expression of his disgust with his own root cellar, there is an underlying theme of survival and the strength of nature.

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