The wind billowing out the seat of my britches,
My feet crackling splinters of glass and dried putty,
The half-grown chrysanthemums staring up like accusers,
Up through the streaked glass, flashing with sunlight,
A few white clouds all rushing eastward,
A line of elms plunging and tossing like horses,
And everyone, everyone pointing up and shouting!
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Child on Top of a Greenhouse
From guest Jackie (contact)
This is a great example of looking at something from another viewpoint. How different to look at the elms from the top of a greenhouse. They are not the same as looking at them from the ground. Roethke would never have seen "horses" in the elms without getting to a new view. He would never have seen those chrysanthemums staring up like accusers if he hadn't seen them from this vantage point atop them. Try looking at your own world from different view points and see what you see! Fascinating. -
From guest Jhudora Rossier (contact)
I think we should all just congratulate him on the fact that he managed to sit on top of a greenhouse and not fall through! -
From guest tony (contact)
i think this poem is discribing when theodore went to a greenhouse a lot looking at the plants and nature and he goes on the roof top and stares at the skys and the coulds look like horses -
hes good and sucks
From guest tony (contact)
i think he is a good poet and he is very good with medephors and he sucks -
For Guest Haley
Roethke had an uncle who owned a local greenhouse. As a child, he spent much time in the greenhouse observing nature.
It appear that here he describes an incident (real or imagined?) where, as a child, he climbs on the roof and it appears that the child is being stared at both by the flower faces inside and the human ones outside.
The sort of exploit many of us got involved in as youngsters.
This may be a metaphor for some risky activity in a public place which causes damage and generates unwanted attention or it may just be a description of an early memory. You must decide for yourself. -
From guest Haley (contact)
I cant even begin to understand the meaning of this poem. It makes no sense to me what so ever. Someone should explain this to me, and he should write simpler poems.. -
From guest Barbara (contact)
His father was a gardener -- with greenhouses. I love the movement, culminating with what all 8 year olds must love -- everyone's eyes on him!! -
Of Children and Greenhouses
From guest Walter (contact)
I was that child at 8 years of age, my nimble narrow feet walking the gutter-valleys, cleaning brush in hand, roasting among three suns and munching frozen kool-aid ice cubes to keep cool. -
neato, this is really neat and has a lot of hidden meanings, I wish i knew what they were!
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cool
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This is and interesting poem, it has many hidden meanings- and no, i don't have to do a project on it, but i do need to write a small note about it for English...
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It is biographical.
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this is a metaphor for artistic break-throughs and how the public generally views anyone with the balls to do it.
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Perhaps he wrote it in the first person because it is a biographical poem - or failing that - he wrote it in this manner to place you as an intimate observer, seeing your friend/brother/sister perched above the greenhouse.
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ummm.....i have no idea at all what is going on in this poem, and i have to do a huge projec on it!
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I am totally at a loss as to why he wrote it in the first person. I have to to a critical evaluation on the poem. I really like the poem but why did he use the first person?
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about a precarious childhood.......memories
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He is telling the story of one day on top of his green house, when he was a child, he is a fearless explorer, and he is talking about the magestic plants around him.
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I think he is just talking about one his days on his greenhouse. I have to do a project on it... in my book it says that the poem means he is a fearless explorer....Jake
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I agree and I have to do a project on it.
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very good poem
well I believe Theodore Roethke is a agreat poet but what does his poem Child on Top of a Greenhouse mean, I have no clue at all.
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