Theodore Roethke was born and lived in arguable the most interesting time in the united state’s history and the world as well. During his life more change occurred on the earth that had ever occurred throughout the course of human exists. The things that influenced his life and work are next to unlimited. We can assume that his fathers death and then soon after influenced his work greatly giving him an almost twisted view on human existences and life and death. But one other large factor that we can assume influenced his work is the changing world that he lived thought. He lived through both world wars the cold war the great depression and the civil rights movement. All these periods in time occurred very briefly in comparisons to Roethke’s life. The longest single period that he lived though is the cold war, and that occurred in the twilight of his life. The changing climate and atmosphere of the world is greatly showed throughout Roethke’s work. The tones and themes of his poetry change drastically over the years.