“There are those to whom place is unimportant, / But this place, where sea and fresh water meet, / Is important. . . . ”
from “The Rose” which he read to an enthusiastic audience at the Seattle World’s Fair in 1962
Theodore Roethke is arguably the greatest poet to have spent a significant amount of time living in Seattle. His years teaching at the University of Washington (1947 until his death in 1963) put the region on the literary map. “The sixteen years of Roethke’s residence in Seattle changed the region’s literary maturity and taste.”
He is to the Northwest School of Literature what Mark Tobey was to the Northwest School of Art. The anchor.
The pool of poets that studied under Roethke include: Richard Hugo, David Wagoner, Carolyn Kizer, Tess Gallagher and Duane Niatum.
It was in the other kind of pool that Roethke’s life ended. He was found face down in a pool on the grounds of the Bloedel family’s estate on Bainbridge Island in Washington State. Brendan Kiley, whose folks live very close to the Bloedel Reserve as it is now called, has a tremendous article in the Stranger on his trip to the “poet’s deathbed” and Roethke’s role in his life.
The story he heard from a neighbor about Roethke’s death went like this:
“Roethke—who taught poetry at the University of Washington and was large, vivacious, and a heavy drinker—was by the pool with Mrs. Bloedel and her daughter one summer afternoon, fixing mint juleps. Mrs. Bloedel went to the main house for towels or a telephone call or something. The daughter followed. When they returned, the poet was floating face down in the water. Three perfect mint juleps sat on a table by the edge of the pool. The family, grieved by the death of their friend, filled in the pool and turned it into a Zen rock garden. There is no plaque.”
His obit in the New York Times obituary simply says Roethke died “apparently of a heart attack… while wading in a neighbor’s swimming pool”
The Theodore Roethke Memorial Poetry Readings at the University of Washington began soon after he died 1964. The reading features an A-list contemporary poet. The 2007 reading is by Robert Bly and will be held in the Roethke Auditorium.
Archive of Roethke photos at UW
Roethke at Modern American Poetry
Chronology