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Analysis on my papas waltz
Analysis of my papa's waltz sparknotes
Analysis of Theodore Roethke's "My Papa's Waltz
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While the subject of “My Papa’s Waltz” by Theodore Roethke has spurred passionate academic debate from professors, scholars, and students alike, the imagery, syntax, and diction of the poem clearly support the interpretation that Roethke writes “My Papa’s Waltz” to reflect on a fond playful memorie between his father and younger self “waltzing.” The poem was published in 1942, a few years after his father had passed away. Many of his poem were about memories he had had with his father in his uncle's greenhouse. Roethke had received the news that he had a mental illness. He used his illness to as a way of exploring different ways to write and having a different perspective of things. In discussions of “My Papa’s Waltz,” one controversial issue …show more content…
Although personal experiences play a key part in the way you interpret the poem. An example of this, is the first stanza “The whiskey on your breath-can make a small boy dizzy”. The lines lead the reader to interpret the poem as a hard working father having a drink after a long day of work. However, some readers argue that the author's use of the word “whiskey” is used in a negative connotation, and it reveals the father is intoxicated. The young boy is dizzy due to how strong the whiskey is. Instead, it may just be about a hardworking father having a drink after a long day of work, since it was more common in the times it was written. The second lines which are “But I hung on like death: Such waltzing was not easy” lead the reader to interpret them as a little boy holding on so hard to his father due to not being able to dance too much because of the smell. The phrase “hung on like death” indicates the little boy did not know how to dance as great, so they hung on so they would not fall. Understanding the diction of the poem is important to help understand the message the author is trying to …show more content…
The father and son could have been playing, and dancing very hard with his son. This would led to the pans falling from the kitchen shelf. This would have also led the mother the mother's “countenance” because she would be worried by the roughly playing and the mess they could have made in the kitchen. In the third stanza it states “The hand that held my wrist-Was battered on one knuckle.” This phrase leads the readers to infer that his father's hand that held his wrist was injured on one of his knuckles. The hard working father could have gone to work and injured his ankle causing him to be hurt on one knuckle. In the next stanzas it states “At every step you missed-My right ear scraped a buckle.” These line lead the audience to believe that the because the father had a little to drink this would make it difficult for him to not to follow along so well, and miss a step. After missing a step that would cause the son to scrape his ear against his belt “buckle”. In the poem the author/ poet also uses a rhyme scheme in the end of each stanza. Using a ABAB rhyme
The most notable qualities of Theodore Roethke’s “My Papa’s Waltz” are the tone and language of the poem which convey the nostalgia adult author feels thinking about the time spent with his father. In the title narrator’s father is affectionately referred to as “Papa” making the impression that the main character and his father are close. The use of possessive pronoun “my” contributes to the overall impression that the father holds special place in the narrator’s heart. As word “waltz” in the title implies the poem gives account of the festive occasion in which the narrator’s father takes part.
The poem begins by establishing that the speakers’ father has had more than enough to drink. “The whiskey on his breath/ Could make a small boy dizzy.” These lines (1, and 2) help in the development of the poem because they set ...
Roethke, Theodore. "My Papa's Waltz." Literature and the Writing Process. Elizabeth McMahan, Susan X Day, and Robert Funk. 6th edition. Upper Saddle River. New Jersey: Prentice 2002. 435.
Ultimately, the subject of “ My Papa’s Waltz” has spurred a passionate academic debate from professors, scholars, and students alike, the imagery, syntax, diction of the poem clearly support the interpretation that Theodore Roethke wrote “ My Papa’s Waltz” to illustrate on a past memory of his drunk and abusive father. The controversy of the poem itself is whether it is a good or bad memory. The use of negative imagery, syntax, and diction support this. Overall, with the explanation of the poem and the use of syntax, diction and imagery “ My Papa’s Waltz” was about Theodore Roethke’s drunk and abusive
The first line in the poem introduces the fact that the father has been drinking whiskey. Now, most of us know that people have different reactions to alcohol. Some people are funny and like to have a good time, others become pretty mean. Which category the father falls in is hotly debated, however, most agree that the father’s drinking is the catalyst for the events in the rest of the poem be it waltzing or beating. Then comes the line, “But I hung on like death.” This is an incredibly powerful simile. Death has a negative connotation and adds a darkness to the piece as well as creating some very strong and powerful imagery. Also in the vein of imagery, the description of the father’s hands as “battered on one knuckle,” and “palm caked hard by dirt,” are very descriptive. His hands’ knuckles could be battered (which is an intense word that usually indicates some type of violence) from hitting and abusing the boy, or, in tandem with his hands being caked with dirt, just shows that his father is a hard
Using a strand of harsh words including “beat,” “scraped,” “battered,” and “whiskey,” the narrator suggests an idea of a harsh relationship despite any fond memories that were discussed. If the narrator simply intended to reflect a warm commemoration, he could have used a strand of words that implied happiness or comfort. The author was clearly aware that at first glance, readers typically assume the poem is about an abusive relationship; nevertheless, he neglected to alter his poem, demonstrating the idea that negative memories of the father do exist.
The poem opens with a son talking about his father’s alcoholism, describing that the amount of whiskey his father drank “could make a small boy dizzy” (Roethke) with the effects of alcohol. The figurative dance with addiction is not easy for the boy, but he still “hung on like death” (Roethke), hoping for a brighter outcome. The father and son are in the kitchen, where the amount of the father’s drunken, physical abuse on the child causes pans to fall from kitchen shelves (Roethke). The boy’s mother, however, can only stand to the side and watch the events unfold with a “countenance [that] could not unfrown itself” (Roethke). The boy’s father grabs him by the wrist with a “battered...knuckle” (Roethke). With this interpretation in mind, the cause of the father’s rough hands becomes unclear. His hands could still be rough from a hard day of work, or perhaps his abusive nature has ended with injuries on his hands. The amount of alcohol consumed by the father causes him to stumble, or miss steps, according to the speaker. As the physical abuse continues, the child states he is “still clinging to [his father’s] shirt” (Roethke). This last line hints that, although the father is an abusive drunk, the child still loves his father and clings to this love with the hope that someday things will improve for his
This means that the poem contains unstressed followed by stressed syllables. In addition, each line contains three-stressed syllable, which makes it trimeter. For instance, “The whiskey on your breath” (1) can be used to identify the stressed syllables in that line. The syllable for “whisk”, “on” and “breath” are the three stressed syllable within that line of the poem. The use of an iambic trimeter allows the poem to become the waltz itself as it matches the three beats of the waltz. While this meter is used throughout the poem, there are certain lines that contain disruptions to the meter of this poem. For example, “slide from the kitchen shelf”(6) which is a trochaic. A trochee is a meter pattern that involves a stressed syllable flowed by an unstressed syllable. In this case, “slide” is a stressed syllable, while “from” is unstressed. These disruptions in meter mirror the father’s “missing steps” in line 11. This dance between the father and son is not smooth, but rather rough and clumsy due to the father’s drunkenness. Similarly, the first stanza also includes a simile, “But I hung on like death” (3), which portrays a sense of seriousness in tone of the speaker. In other words, there is a sense of play but also a sense of danger that characterizes the
The narrator stated that “Every step you missed / My right ear scraped a buckle.”(Roethke line 11 / 12) that could have been referring to a memory of his father beating him with the back end of a belt but missing his target, the boy, because of how intoxicated he was. His father 's hands are “battered on one knuckle” (Roethke line 10) , perhaps from getting into a fight before coming home from a bar or maybe he scraped it in the process of beating his
The poem, “My Papa’s Waltz” by Theodore Roethke, is about a boy reminiscing about an incidence with his father. From the beginning, this poem states the conflict between a father and son involved in a rambunctious dance, but as it continues, the story suggests the dance may actually be a physical altercation. Within the line, “Such waltzing was not easy,” is the proposal this is not a singular incident, but rather a routine ritual between the boy and his father (Line 4). The speaker is an adult recollecting, to himself as the audience, a childhood memory of an incident with his father. As the poem opens, the child recalls his father engaging in act of the drinking whiskey to the extent that the fumes of his breath made him dizzy or lightheaded, as if the adrenaline coursing through his veins from wrestling or struggling with his father wasn’t enough to make him unsteady. The child is hanging on to his father as a way of protecting himself from the assault being inflicted upon him. When the narrator states within the simile, “But I hung on like death,” death symbolizes a force inescapable and not able to release its grasp (3). As the poem continues, the speaker uses the term “romped” to describe the movement within the waltz. A waltz is an elegant, flowing type of dance and one does not “romp” through a waltz. The two participants are causing such a ruckus, the mother’s pans slide off a shelf in the kitchen. As the mother looks on, she is silent with only a frown as an expression of her disapproval. The speaker states his father’s hand “was battered on one knuckle,” suggesting the hand had been injured possibly from another violent incident in the past (10). As the commotion continues, the child is “waltzed” into his bedroom, the ...
The wording of the poem is general. It does not state exactly what is happening at times so all the readers can do is interpret what the poem is saying based on what the poem does say. One of the few things that is clear in the poem is that in the start of the poem, the father was drunk “The whiskey on your breath / Could make a small boy dizzy” (1-2) and that the father grabbed his son and was waltzing with him. This could either mean that the father was getting physical with his son in a violent manner simply because he was under the influence, or was dancing with him. If they were just dancing, one can just imagine that the son just got on his father’s shoes, and the father was the one dancing. This is unclear simply because when one is drinking, the way they act is unpredictable. The wording of the poem makes it seem like the son is either using the word waltz to make the readers know that his drunken father was not being violent but showing affection in an uncommon way or to hide the violence that may have been happening.
This poem has a kept form. Even at a glance, it has a set form. It consists of four quatrains, each line being an iambic tritameter. The poem is about a young boy waltzing with his father. One can assume that the speaker is a young boy, or perhaps the poet reminiscing his youth. The father dances around in a haphazard manner, knocking over pans in the kitchen. Upon first glance, the tone is humorous. The picture one immediately forms is rather comical with the boy clinging on for dear life as his chuckling father spins him round and round, making a mess in the kitchen while the mother looks on discontentedly. However, the line, "whiskey on your breath could make a small boy dizzy" suggests the father's drunkedness and "at every step you missed my right ear scraped buckle" suggests the dance was not an altogether joyful one. Lines such as "hung on like death", and "beat time on my head" are might even lead the reader to think the father is abusive of the boy.
Not only the words, but the figures of speech and other such elements are important to analyzing the poem. Alliteration is seen throughout the entire poem, as in lines one through four, and seven through eight. The alliteration in one through four (whisky, waltzing, was) flows nicely, contrasting to the negativity of the first stanza, while seven through eight (countenance, could) sound unpleasing to the ear, emphasizing the mother’s disapproval. The imagery of the father beating time on the child’s head with his palm sounds harmful, as well as the image of the father’s bruised hands holding the child’s wrists. It portrays the dad as having an ultimate power over the child, instead of holding his hands, he grabs his wrists.
My Papa’s Waltz has been compared to a generational litmus test. Depending on what generation the reader was born, could determine how the reader would interpret this poem. Each generation has its own views that have been developed in them for the language used to describe Papa in this poem. The whiskey on his breath and Papa’s hand beating on his head, both sound like a negative connotation. Depending on the experience of the reader, they can either be disturbed by these words or be drawn in closer to the poem. Theodore Roethke loved his father. Not only did he love him, but he idolized him and unfortunately lost him at an early age. This poem is a reflective memorial waltz written in iambic trimeter to honor his father and mother.
In the late nineteen forties, Theodore Roethke emerged with a poem that has been the source of much debate. "My Papa's Waltz," is an account of a relationship between son and father. Alas, many readers who are exposed to this piece fail to note the love present in the connection of the characters. In an attempt to illuminate the author's true intention several factors must be examined. After several examinations of Roethke's poem as well as learning of his childhood it is evident that this poem does not suggest an abusive environment, but is an appreciative account of the love and playfulness between the characters. Therefore, a successful interpretation of this poem will look beyond the four stanzas and study not only the history of the writing, but the life of the poet.