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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To Guest PHDFC and others
Roethke seems to be leaving a lot to the imagination of the reader in this poem as he often did in his work.
Was the young lad standing on the top of the greenhouse roof and listening to the glass crack (not break) under his feet or had he fallen and was the broken glass crackling under foot? It's upto you to decide as your imagination paints the picture.
The image of the youth's (short?)pants being expanded like a cloth balloon as the wind blows up the leg opening (baggy in those days) is less ambiguous and does seem to indicate that he is still on the roof.
However the readers must decide for themselves.
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need help here pls
From guest PFDHC (contact)
what does the first sentence mean? like, his pants have a hole and the wind is blowing at it? it sounds so weird. and oh, did he really fall through or he just broke some pieces of glass?? -
Did he fall through the glass?
From guest 平凡的花草 (contact)
Hey, some of the guests say he fell through the roof, while some other people say he didn't. Would someone please tell me the truth? i think he did fall, for the 2 sentence says" splinters of glass". oh, one more thing: what does the 1 sentence mean? pls help! >_< -
THE REAL MEANING
From guest brenda (contact)
o0o0o0ok chid on top of greenhouse is a poem of theodores memories as a young boy.it is a memorie of him walking on top of the greenhouse and watching as the plants looked up at him as if he were doing something wrong which he was.....quote there were no actual accusers it was his imagination as he personified the the plants as little accusers acussing him....lol.....it is a metaphor......remenber he did not fall threw the ceiling of the greenhouse only the glass broke a lil.....not all the way because if not he would have fallen down and snapped his neck and be parralized 4 the rest of his life then we would have never had a poet as great as TEODORE ROETHKE.....hahaha...how much i lovee his poems -
Child on top of a Greenhouse
From guest Sophia (contact)
I believe that he is talking about how he fell through his father's large commercial greenhouse's ceiling. The plants and clouds were accusing him of disobeying his father's rules. Everyone is pointing up at the hole he made... That's what I think. -
Child on Top of a Greenhouse
From guest Brit (contact)
To Me, this poem is about How the narrator is thinking back.. almost like a memory. This being one of them; hanging on top of a greenhouse, and how people would stare and point at how ridiculous it was, and that saying the spotlight was all on him, and .. it seems to me that things are going by really fast, since he says the clouds were rushing by. I could write so much about this poem. But I'm just going to say that. When you read short peoms like this, think outside the box. -
HELP!!!
From guest Alicia (contact)
i really need to know the meaning of this poem...can someone pls help me?! -
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for Alicia
Please read the comments left here by others before you - they will soon explain the meaning of the poem.
Von - Oldpoetry
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Stylistics
From guest Anthony (contact)
The poem contains only participles but no finite verbs. Likewise the poem is a single sentence. However with no finite verbs it is not a real sentence. Thus the story of the poem are in line with the stylisic element he is playing with. Everyone will look at the poem stylistically and say "what the hell are you doing, that is all wrong" just as they would a child doing something dangerous and yet wildly adventurous. -
Saginaw Native
From guest Pamela (contact)
Can't you see the errant child defying grownups in a place he doesn't belong? At that view, he sees not the trunk but the leaves of the tree. (My wedding flowers came from that greenhouse.) -
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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