A pervasive interest in the poetry of Theodore Roethke is that man creates the world he perceives, hence Roethke accepts as axiomatic the reciprocity between the external, perceptible, world and the faculties of the human mind. "Interlude" develops this theme while offering a comment on the creative process itself.
In the opening three lines of the poem, Roethke presents a vitalistic conception of nature, alluding unobtrusively to the physical properties of man by introducing the term "hand" in a colloquial phrase. A familiar referent describing the uncontrollability of "air," "hand" is among the indices of meaning providing an interpretation for "the rush of wind."… Since the verbs imply violence, injury and disarrangement ("tender leaves" are despoiled, "confusion" exists), what emerges is an anthropomorphic image of the wind, the wind according to the demands of his individual perception, encourages the reader to understand an external force within the context of human nature. His reason for doing so becomes clear in the remainder of the poem.
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