Consider books about the complex relationship between love and abuse in families, including such memoirs as Staceyann Chin's The Other Side of Paradise, Jeannette Walls's The Glass Castle, or Frank McCourt's Angela's Ashes.
Consider reading Roethke's full collections, including The Lost Son.
Consider some of the poets who mentored Roethke, including W.H. Auden and Stanley Kunitz, and poets he mentored, including Carolyn Kizer and Richard Hugo.