«I was never his son, not I.»

This study analyzes Theodore Roethke's work from a «pessimistic» point of view. The word is the author's, and by examining its implications, he casts new light on the complicated interrelations between ambition and talent, or between life and art. Roethke's poetry exhibits the patterns of a prodigal quest, the struggle and failure of the poet to free himself from literary and autobiographical contingencies. These influences, however, are responsible in large degree for the originality and moving qualities in Roethke's work - qualities for which he is rightly considered a major American poet.