PoemThe Bat
Author / PoetTheodore Roethke
TagsDead, House, Mouse

By day the bat is cousin to the mouse.
He likes the attic of an aging house.

His fingers make a hat about his head.
His pulse beat is so slow we think him dead.

He loops in crazy figures half the night
Among the trees that face the corner light.

But when he brushes up against a screen,
We are afraid of what our eyes have seen:

For something is amiss or out of place
When mice with wings can wear a human face.

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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