ween his human life and that of the inhabitants youth" (12). Mills believed that even though the loss of Theodore's father was unfortunate, a positive result came about. After Theodore graduated from high school, he went to the University of Michigan and graduated magna cum laude in 1929. He later took a few graduate classes at Michigan and Harvard. He openly began to discuss and write poetry while at Harvard. Theodore Roethke's literary contributions, style characteristics and reasons why his writings are studied illustrate an enormous part of his life and prove to be not only interesting, but inspiring.
             Theodore was a poet and author who contributed many well-known pieces to American literature. During his lifetime, he created approximately two hundred notebooks that were overflowing with poems. Unfortunately only three percent of the poems in those notebooks were ever actually published. His first book, Open House, was written over a period of ten years and was critically acclaimed upon its publication. However, most of Theodore's pieces that are well-known to the public are collections of his poems. An example would be
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