Theodore Roethke

"My Papa's Waltz" 1948
From the North American Sequence, "Meditation at Oyster River" 1964

On the second:
It is neat how Roethke ties the day/night cycle to life and death. At the end of section I, we see the sun going down. Section II begins by saying, "The self persists like a dying star/" and then places us in a sleep while death, symbolized by nature and animals, goes about its normal activities.