A Drunken Dance
Theodore Roethke’s “My Papa’s Waltz” tells the reader of a small boy’s memory of his father. It explains how his father is intoxicated and the scene that goes along with it, using the word waltz to describe it.
In the first two lines, it recounts the smell of his father’s breath and the extent to which it reeked: “The whiskey on your breath / Could make a small boy dizzy” (1-2). As the third and fourth lines are read, a picture of a small boy hanging onto his father is instilled in the reader’s mind: “But I hung on like death / Such waltzing was not easy” (3-4). We would not normally associate this particular image with a waltz, a word Webster’s Dictionary defines as a ballroom dance in 3/4 time with strong accent on the first beat and a basic pattern of step-step-close. How can such an elegant dance be used to describe such a scene?
The fifth and sixth lines describe, sarcastically, a playful incident where pans fall off the kitchen shelf: “We romped until the pans / Slid from the kitchen shelf” (5-6). Finally the boy’s mother comes into play during the seventh and eight lines. Her facial expression “Could not unfrown itself” (8). This tells us that the mother was displeased but its rather discerning that she made no attempt at intervening. We would normally think of a mother’s love as unconditional and willing to do anything for her son. It really shows the degree of fear the father must have embedded into the mother with his actions.
The eleventh through fourteenth lines describe actual, bodily harm done to the young boy by way of his father’s acts: “At every step you missed / My right ear scraped a buckle / You beat time on my head / With a palm caked hard by dirt” (11-14). We can actually picture the boy clinging to his father as his ear scrapes the father’s belt buckle and his watch bumps hard onto the boy’s head.
I believe this poem tells a rather disturbing story of a boy’s time with his father in a very sarcastic way. I believe the theme to it is the sarcasm itself. It shows how some things that are bad can be described as good.
The poem takes the reader back in time for a moment to a small kitchen and a young boy at bedtime. The dishes have been cleared and placed on the counter or in the sink. The family is seated around the table. The father having a glass of whiskey to relax after a very hard day working in the family owned twenty-five-acre greenhouse complex. He is asked to take his small son to bed. The poem begins, “The whiskey on your breath could make a small boy dizzy” (Roethke line 1) enlists the imagery of what the young boy was smelling as he most likely climbed aboard his fathers’ large work boots for the evening waltz to bed. It is obvious this is an evening ritual, one that is cherished. The boy is aware of his fathers’ waltzing abilities and he concedes that he is up for the challenge. The irony of the statement, “I hung on like death” (Roethke line 3) is a private one, yet deeply describes his yearning for one more waltz with his father who passed away when Theodore was only fifteen years ...
However, neither the setting of the poem nor its events can be linked to the ballrooms where people dance waltz. The opening lines of the poem portray the narrator’s father as a drunken person “The whiskey on your breath/ Could make a small boy dizzy”. The dancer is anything but elegant, he doesn’t waltz gracefully but romps “until the pans/Slid from the kitchen shelf”. The poem is set in a family home, most likely in the kitchen. Thus, the narrator is trying to downplay the social connotati...
“My Papa’s Waltz” by Theodore Roethke can be interpreted in a few different ways. The most obvious one being that he was dancing around with his father, having so much fun that he did not want to stop. His father is very drunk though, which leads us to believe that it is no just a fun story of him and his father dancing one night. What Roethke is really trying to show us, is the abusive relationship he had with his father.
Throughout the ages, dance has played an important role in society. It symbolizes tradition, family, bonding, and entertainment. In almost every decade of the twentieth century, a different style of dance prevailed. In the 1970s, John Travolta brought disco dancing into the spotlight with his portrayal of Tony Manero in Saturday Night Fever. Through his depiction of this character, John Travolta shows the monumental effects of dancing. Literature can also artfully explore the effect of dance on people. Theodore Roethke's "My Papa's Waltz" dramatizes a special and positive moment in a boy's life. The author's word choice reflects the significance of this moment of bonding between a father and his son. Some critics have seen this boy's memories as a recollection of a time of abuse. This poem does not reflect an instance of abuse, but rather a dance of life.
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
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.
My Papa’s Waltz presents a child’s telling of the waltz taking place between him and his father. As a verb, a waltz is “to move or walk in a lively and confident manner” (“Waltz”). The waltz described throughout the poem is quick and lively as the boy “hung on like death” (Roethke)
While reading the poem the reader can imply that the father provides for his wife and son, but deals with the stress of having to work hard in a bad way. He may do what it takes to make sure his family is stable, but while doing so he is getting drunk and beating his son. For example, in lines 1 and 2, “The whisky on your breath Could make a small boy dizzy” symbolizes how much the father was drinking. He was drinking so much, the scent was too much to take. Lines 7 and 8, “My mother’s countenance, Could not unfrown itself.” This helps the reader understand the mother’s perspective on things. She is unhappy seeing what is going on which is why she is frowning. Although she never says anything it can be implied that because of the fact that the mother never speaks up just shows how scared she could be of her drunk husband. Lines 9 and 10, “The hand that held my wrist Was battered on one knuckle”, with this line the reader is able to see using imagery that the father is a hard worker because as said above his knuckle was battered. The reader can also take this in a different direction by saying that his hand was battered from beating his child as well. Lastly, lines 13 and 14, “You beat time on my head With a palm caked hard by dirt” As well as the quote above this quote shows that the father was beating his child with his dirty hand from all the work the father has
The father moves from side to side like waltzing, but in reality, I believe this is for his drunken condition. The child and the mother are dealing with his father’s alcoholism, which looks that the mother doesn’t care anymore about her family. I can easily perceive the child’s and the mother’s feelings and their unhappiness if instead of spending a great time with him, they are experiencing somehow abandon of the persons who supposed to be the strongest in their family and giving the best sample to them. “Then Waltzed me off to bed” (line 15) and “Still clinging to your shirt” (line 16) these two phrases are highly critical view of the fact that the child still sticks to his father no matter how dangerous his father is the child loves his “papa”. In addition, at the end the child’s hope is that his father changes one day and be with them as a real father unknowing that this is a perpetuated situation and transcending anger for
First of all, “My Papa’s Waltz” by Theodore Roethke is a profound look into the childhood memories through the eyes of a small boy. Roethke’s choice of the title of the poem is a powerful use of sensory imagery. Furthermore, the word waltz may influence the audience’s preconception of the
Childhood experiences seem to be the ones that are recollected most vividly throughout a person's life. Almost everyone can remember some aspect of his or her childhood experiences, pleasant and unpleasant alike. Theodore Roethke's poem "My Papa's Waltz" suggests even further that this concept could be true. The dance described in this poem illustrates an interaction between father and child that contains more than the expected joyous, loving attitude between the two characters. Roethke's tone in this work exhibits the blended, yet powerful emotions that he, as a grown man, feels when looking back on this childhood experience. The author somewhat implicates feelings of resentment fused with a loving reliance with his father.
In the third and fourth lines, Roethke describes the boy trying to keep up with his father’s dance. He states, “But I hung on like death: / Such waltzing was not easy” (3-4). Roethke’s use of the simile “I hung on like death” implies that the waltz is extremely difficult and fast; however, he only states that it “was not easy.” The contrast between the diction in this two lines exemplifies the admiration the child has for his father. The child does not want to blame his father’s drunkenness for the difficulty of the waltz, so he downplays the difficulty instead. Roethke continues to use contrasting diction to emphasize the child’s love for his father. In the third stanza, Roethke describes the waltz, ‘At every step you missed / My right ear scraped a buckle” (11-12). Obviously, it is painful for the child to have his ear scraped at every missed step, but he refuses to speak up or stop because he loves dancing with his father. Lastly, and possibly the most dramatic of all the contrasts, is the last two lines of the poem. Roethke states, “Then waltzed me off to bed / Still clinging to your shirt” (15-16). Roethke uses of the word “clinging” offers two meaning. The boy must cling onto his father in order to not fall down, but at the same time, the boy clings to his father because he loves him so much. Roethke’s word choice throughout the boy,
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.
Indeed, the satirical tone of this poem suggests that the speaker is somewhat critical of his father. The whiskey smell, the roughness, the inconsiderate and reckless actions are under scrutiny. The mother's frowning countenance suggests she too is rather unhappy with the scene. However, the winning tone of the poem is the light and comical one.
Roethke's "My Papa's Waltz" is about a relationship between a father and his son. Beginning with the title, the author's meticulous choice of voca...