American poet and teacher Theodore Roethke (1908-1963) is considered a major poet of his generation. He demonstrated a wide range of styles and growing awareness of how to transform his love of nature into a vehicle for expressing his mystical visions.

Theodore Roethke was born in Saginaw, Mich., on May 25, 1908. The family owned the largest greenhouses in the state. He called his home "a wonderful place for a child to grow up in and around"--25 acres under glass in town and "the last stand of virgin timber in the Saginaw Valley" out in the country.

Roethke claimed to have hated high school; nevertheless, he continued his education, earning a bachelor of arts degree at the University of Michigan (1929) and spending 1930-1931 at Harvard. He began teaching at Lafayette College (1931), later taught at Pennsylvania State College, then moved to Bennington as assistant professor of English (1943). By 1947 he had...