"By daily dying I have come to be." Spoken by Theodore Roethke himself, this quotation leaves a few things to the reader's imagination such as: what has he come to be? In his poem "I Knew a Woman" he answers this provocative question with a deafening roar of "sensual god." Also in this poem, Roethke proves the eroticism manifest in seemingly innocent words; in fact, he uses diction and tone in this poem to convey a strong sense of sensuality and an extended metaphor for sex, marriage, and baby making.

Beginning with the title, Roethke reminds the reader of the biblical meaning of "know" where knowing a woman meant to have had sex with her. Continuing into the actual text of the poem, the reader finds a woman "lovely in her bones" as Roethke's way of complimenting this woman's beauty. In the second line, he mentions "small birds...