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Micah's Analysis
“Child on top of a Greenhouse”
may not be the wordiest poem that Theodore Roethke ever wrote but what elements are there make this, like many of Roethke’s
works, a challenge to interpret. Roethke’s works, in general, contain more
than we are given in this poem and it is most certainly what is left out that makes the reader think. We are given the bare bones; a single stanza, vivid imagery, and two whopping metaphors, nothing else. It’s a childhood experience in my opinion and nothing more. Its simplistic nature must be what Roethke was striving for, yet, surprisingly, this is not at all agreed
upon. Roethke Syntax is open to multiple interpretations purposefully, leaving
it to reader to decide. (e.g. Does the child fall through the glass roof greenhouse
or just cut his feet on it? Does anyone witness this or does everyone witness
this? Etc.) Another thing Roethke
does that is particularly clever is personify the chrysanthemums in such a way that the reader has to come back to realize
he is only talking about plants in the last line of the poem, "And everyone, everyone pointing up and
shouting". From there, we can draw the connection to childhood emotions of guilt and shame.
The entire poem is fascinating however you decide to look at it.
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Matt's Analysis
“Child on top of a Greenhouse”
Simply put is a poem
about a young child’s’ quest to learn and try new things. A boy sees a bird
flying around the yard so he climbs up on top of the house and jumps off to try
and fly himself. Can he fly? Of coarse he can’t. But this poem is about the few
short seconds from the time the boy jumps and the time he realizes that he
can’t fly. The few seconds where the child doesn’t know if he can fly or not,
that time were everything seems possible to the child. That short time is what
it means to be a child. Children have the ability to do or say anything because
they haven’t fully grasped the concept of the universe. They don’t know that
they cannot fly because they haven’t tried or have been told that they
can’t. This is what Roethke was
trying to show us by leaving this poem up for interpretation. That like this
poem and like a child sometimes we must ignore the rules of the universe. If we
are capable of doing that we can do anything, just like a child.
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