After multiple reviews, some of Roethke’s more notable themes include; childhood development, organic observation, psychological analysis/self discovery, love, women, death and God.  It is interesting to trace some of these more prevalent themes in congruence with Roethke’s life as I’ve found many of them appear to be a direct reflection of what was going on in his life at that time.  Roethke always seemed to write what was relevant to him and when he changed so did his subject matter.  For instance, some of his earlier works from the 1940’s including his first volume of verse, Open House , were strictly devoted to self-exploration and personal experiences.  “My secrets cry aloud,” he writes, describing his psyche, or “heart,” as an “open house” with “widely swung” doors.  Then there were the “greenhouse poems” which followed a similar suit with detail to all things green as well as additional childhood content.   Works such as “A Child on Top of a Greenhouse” and “My Papa’s Waltz” would be included in these poems.   

Through his middle and late adulthood we see Roethke’s subject matter change as he reinvents himself as more matured man, focusing much more on the psychological and sexuality around the same time as he himself finds marriage and continues to struggle with bouts of manic depression.  Poems including “I Knew A Women” and “In A Dark Time” are reflections of this time.  His Pultizer Prize-winning poem “The Walking” and “The Far Field” were some of his later works reflecting more of an altruistic movement.  The only constants in Roethke’s works seem to be his ability to describe the organic.  Though the majority of this was done in his earlier works, Roethke never lost his connection with nature and his “greenhouse” roots.