西奧多·羅特剋（Theodore Roethke，1908—1963）出生於密歇根州薩吉諾。當他還是個孩子的時候，他花了很多時間在他父親和叔叔擁有的溫室裏。他對那裏的自然世界的印象後來深刻地影響了他詩歌的主題和意象。羅特剋1929年以優異成績從密歇根大學畢業。後來，他在密歇根大學和哈佛大學上了幾門研究生課程，但在學校裏並不快樂。他的第一本書《開放之傢》（Open House，1941）花了10年時間寫成，一經出版便廣受好評。他後來很少發表作品，但他的聲譽隨着每一部新作品的問世而提高，包括1954年獲得普利策奬的《覺醒》（The waking）。
Theodore Roethke hardly fits anyone’s image of the stereotypical high-minded poet-intellectual of the 1940s through 1960s. Born in Saginaw, Michigan, his father was a German immigrant who owned and ran a 25-acre greenhouse. Though as a child he read a great deal and as a high school freshman he had a Red Cross campaign speech translated into 26 languages, he suffered from issues of abandonment and loss, and his lack of self-esteem led him to strive to be accepted by peers. When he was 14, his father died of cancer and his uncle committed suicide. He attended the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, where he adopted a tough, bear-like image (weighing over 225 pounds) and even developed a fascination with gangsters. Eccentric and nonconformist—he later called himself “odious” and “unhappy”—Roethke yearned for a friend with whom he could talk and relate his ambitions. Poet and writer James Dickey once named Roethke the greatest of all American poets: “I don't see anyone else that has the kind of deep, gut vitality that Roethke's got. Whitman was a great poet, but he's no competition for Roethke.” His difficult childhood, his bouts with bipolar disorder, and his ceaseless search for truth through his poetry writing led to a difficult life, but also helped to produce a remarkable body of work that would influence future generations of American poets to pursue the mysteries of one’s inner self.