When poets refer to other great works, people, and events, it’s usually not accidental. Put on your super-sleuth hat and figure out why.
Literary and Philosophical References
- William Butler Yeats’ “A Dialogue of Self and Soul” (11)
Cameo Appearances
- Slaughterhouse-Five, Kurt Vonnegut. In the first chapter, Vonnegut says he has two books with him on his flight; one of them is a copy of Roethke’s Words for the Wind. He quotes the first lines maybe to introduce the novel’s theme of predestination: “So it goes.”
- John Le Carré mentions the same lines in his 1989 novel The Russia House.
- Mia Farrow must have identified pretty strongly with this poem. She titled her autobiography, What Falls Away.
- Harold Simonson borrowed another line for the title of his collection of autobiographical essays, Going Where I Have To Go: Essays from Within.