PoemEpidermal Macabre
Author / PoetTheodore Roethke
TagsBone, Cloth, Dress, Ghost

Indelicate is he who loathes
The aspect of his fleshy clothes, —
The flying fabric stitched on bone,
The vesture of the skeleton,
The garment neither fur nor hair,
The cloak of evil and despair,
The veil long violated by
Caresses of the hand and eye.
Yet such is my unseemliness:
I hate my epidermal dress,
The savage blood’s obscenity,
The rags of my anatomy,
And willingly would I dispense
With false accouterments of sense,
To sleep immodestly, a most
Incarnadine and carnal ghost.

Theodore Roethke
Theodore Roethke
25 May 1908 - 1 Aug 1963
Region: North America
Period: Modernist
Movement: Confessional, Romanticism
Awards: National Book Award, Pulitzer Prize for Poetry

more poems by Theodore Roethke

Poem NameTopic
The Waking (1948)Field, Happy, Stream
Selections From I Am! Said The LambBlizzard, Ceiling, Chair
The PikeEye, Pool, Shadow
The Saginaw SongGlass, Plate, Stream
The VisitantCloud, Mountain, Stone
Root CellarBreath, Dark, Root
Big WindMorning, Rose, Storm
The Shape Of The FireFire, Flower, House
The VoiceBird, Heart, Tree
Journey into the InteriorInterior, Journey, Rain

all poems by Theodore Roethke

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