Regression And Theodore Roethke's Poetry

For the American poet Theodore Roethke, regression is of great significance. The "regressive" style of poetic creation contributed much to the restoration of psychic balance in making him free from the sufferings of getting "lost." More importantly, it was beneficial to the formation of his unique poetic art.According to the analytical psychologist C. G. Jung, regression refers to the backward movement of "psychic energy" within individual's psyche as an adaptation to one's inner world. It is a necessary step for the restoration of psychic harmony in one's reconciliation to the environment. More importantly, it can provide the individual with wisdom and energy for his future progression while bringing unconscious contents to light. Theodore Roethke agreed with the Jungian view and believed that in order to go forward as a spiritual man it was necessary first to go back. There would be a going forward after perpetual slipping-back. From the perspective of Jungian psychology, the author has observed that the "lost son"—Roethke's protagonist over volumes of his poetry, experiences such a trip of regression.In Roethke's early poetry, individualized images and themes symbolically and vividly serve as the presentations of the protagonist's lurking greenhouse complex and father complex, also as a genuine reflection of the poet's long repressed forgotten emotions in his psyche. As he regresses further, his attention is diverted to the collective unconscious—the area of common racial knowledge. In Roethke's later poetry, the protagonist begins to encounter and recognize the important archetypes of racial wisdom such as anima, shadow, and the Self. First, the protagonist experiences the anima, i.e. the "soul image" or the feminine principle in man. Later, the shadow, the archetype of man's inferiority, madness and creativity, is also projected during the course of his becoming oneness with the subhuman beings. In the last volume of Roethke's poetry, the protagonist regresses to the "far field," that is, the interior part of his psyche, and fully experiences and recognizes the Self—a symbol of psychic harmony and wholeness. At last, the poet-protagonist completes his unusual regressive journey as "a final man" with full self-realization.Theodore Roethke belongs to what Jung calls the "visionary mode" of writers who probe into the psyche of human beings and create artistic works out of the unconscious. The unconscious complexes and archetypes encountered during regression had bestowed on Roethke magic inspirations as well as uncommon sources for his creation. For Roethke, to go back is to go forward. The dialectical viewpoint has been given a splendid illustration with his own poetic practice, which contributed much to the development of modern poetry.