poetry texts, poem archive at plagiarist.com

This poem makes my blood scream in agreement. Noone should have to live in a pointless papered world. What are we doing in our offices and cubicles. We were never meant to be stuffed in an white prison recording maningless information.Get out now! We are wasting our lives day after day after....

The first time I read this poem, I did not understand it at all. But then I read it again and began to think that this poem was about the monotony and ‘unalterable pathos’ of working everyday. Being stuck in a tiny workspace, shuffling papers, and everyone else around doing the same. It was like the life was being sucked out of these people. But again, I came up with a new idea of what this poem meant. I did some backround checks on Theodore Roethke and in 1959 he had a mental breakdown was admitted into the Halcyon Sanitarium in Seattle. Now I think 'Dolor' is about his time being there. The sterile, white walls of of his prison, the monotony of each day being in this padded-cell jail. 'Dolor' is a very interesting poem, and I would interested to see what other peoples interpretations are.

Thank you, Carrie Bella Inthe cubicle and Angie Brown. What you write makes sense to me. Could Roethke, who taught college classes, also be lamenting the tedium and sterility of the classroom environment? What a haunting first line!