Roethke's Elegy For Jane

Beyond the natural course of literary pieces, unrequited and familial love are the predominant outliers for woeful tales of longing and disastrous ending. However, in the poem, “Elegy for Jane,” platonic love resonates as a passionate voice in remembrance to his fallen student, Jane, who experienced an untimely end by falling from a horse. He speaks from a place of nostalgia, connecting her physical attributes to that of nature, and finishes with a jaded desire to wake her from an eternal slumber if given the chance. The poem in its entirety reflects the impact of one human life on another outside the context of traditional standards-romantic. Roethke’s comparison of his student’s demise is quite similar to the finality of nature’s cycle.