In Theodore Roethke’s life he encountered the death of his father and his uncle, and I believe he based “My Papa’s Waltz” on his dad. When he was just fourteen years old his father passed away from cancer and this death was dramatic to him and showed throughout his later writings. Bobby Fong said this poem is possibly a “happy memory” that Roethke remembers from this past when his dad and he would “playfully” dance around the kitchen (n.p.). Even if his father had a few drinks in him, because he had a long day at work, the young boy still wanted to do the waltz with his papa. I am sure we all have had a time where we horse played and got bumped around a lot. There has been a good bit of discussion about whether the poem is talking about a father beating his son or just the father and the son horse playing around. In my opinion, I believe that the poem is based on affection of the young boy and his father waltzing around. I get this sense through the author’s use of imagery, word choice, and meter. Theodore Roethke’s poem “My Papa’s Waltz” demonstrates a young boy’s affection for his father’s love, even if that means having to tolerate his father being drunk.
Many critics believe that “My Papa’s Waltz” is a sad depressing poem, when really it is a poem of affection. If people read the poem only once, many readers will automatically jump to conclusion that the poem is talking about abuse. This poem is definitely a poem that needs to be read more than once to fully get all of the details in place. Many critics think the poem talks about a father who comes home drunk and is beating his son. Most people in today’s society see alcohol as being connected to some sort of violence, which is not always the case. John Ciardi states that “My...
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...nderstanding. I know when I first read the poem I thought that the poem was negative and about a father beating a boy, but once I read it again I got a fuller understanding of what it meant. The author wants the readers to pounder whether or not the poem is negative or positive. However, I get the sense of a positive poem through the author’s use of imagery, word choice, and meter. The author puts the image of a boy and his father dancing around like the waltz. Roethke chose his words very well when he was writing this poem. McKenna said that he changed the words in his poem several times, especially the title (34). Then, the author uses the poem through meter as a sense of the dance through unstressed and stressed syllables. From the evidence, I strongly believe that “My Papa’s Waltz” is about a young boy looking for affection from his father, even if he is drunk.
The poem describes Curtis’ father as being an extremely physically strong man, who could ‘punch nails into wood with a clenched fist’. This is obviously not a realistic picture, but it is clear that Curtis admired his father in this aspect. The poem also describes how, when his father came home from work he would ‘stretch his arms, and hang the five sons from them, turning like a roundabout.’ This suggests that despite being a hard-working man, he still had time to pay attention to his children, which is respectable. He seems like a hard-working family man, and a lot of fun.
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.
Theodore Roethke's poem “My Papa's Waltz” is a unique American poem which is written in iambic trimeter. The poem captures the sometimes intense relationship between father and son. Roethke's own father, a German immigrant, died when he was still a teenager. His father was a major inspiration in his life and images from his childhood appear throughout his poetry. A biographer, Matt Forster comments that “His poems are often explorations of his own psyche, using imagery from his childhood to describe his interior life (Forster 2005).” He became one of the best known American poets by the end of his lifetime in 1963. In the famous poem “My Papa's Waltz” the author uses musicality and deep psychologically-rooted themes to create a poem that is unforgettable and alive with action. The poem is composed in iambic trimeter which parallels the 1, 2, 3 tempo of a waltz. This feature helps in creating the illusion of musicality and dancing as is suggested in the poem's title. Thematically the poem comments on the oedipal complex, the intimate relationship between father and son, loss, memory and music.
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.
“My Papa’s Waltz” by Theodore Roethke is a poem that illustrates the love and bonding between a father and child through structure, figurative language, imagery, symbolism, and diction. The poem begins with lines making it seem negative, violent, and maybe even hate. However it was really his use of figurative language to show them bonding and having fun. In the first quatrain it says the father has whiskey breath, enough to make a child dizzy, so the child hangs on like “death”, because it was hard for him to waltz. At a first glance this may seem negative because of the whiskey and the author's choice of words like death. Although it is not negative. The father may have had a whiskey breath but it doesn't state he was drunk, and him hanging on like death may sound horrific, but he has to hold on to him so he is inescapable as death because it is
In the poem “My Papa’s Waltz” by Theodore Roethke, the speaker is reflecting on a childhood experience involving his father. Some people assume that this poem is about a happy relationship between a father and son while other people assume that this poem emphasizes hidden messages of parental abuse. In my
Roethke’s and Hayden’s poems use tone in the same way to show that both children ultimately love their fathers regardless of the abuse he commits. The young boy in My Papa’s Waltz is clearly very fond of his father even though his Papa abuses him. It is through the tone the young boy uses that Roethke shows how much he loves his father. This is first enforced when the boy says, “But I hung on like death: Such waltzing was not easy” (Roethke, 3-4). The boy loves his father and he h...
father’s childhood, and later in the poem we learn that this contemplation is more specifically
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
Donald Hall describes the use of imagery in poetry as a device that "makes us more sensitive to [literature], as if we acquired eyes that could see through things"(p 530). Imagery creates vivid details that deal with one's sense of sight, sound, touch, smell, or taste. These details can be seen in Theodore Roethke's "My Papa's Waltz" because the senses of touch, sight, sound, and smell appeal to the reader in order to better explain the feelings of each character in the poem. Roethke's use of imagery creates a negative picture that is painted by the son of an abusive father.
The tone of a poem can only by recognized when reading carefully and paying close attention to the words and what they might suggest. The rhyme scheme of My Papa’s Waltz is extremely relevant to the poem. For example, in the first stanza dizzy and easy create the rollicking rhythm, as does the following stanza’s with the same pattern. The structure of words create an almost "waltz" like melody. The phrase " we romped until the pans / Slid from the kitchen shelf" and " waltzed me off to bed" (Roethke 5-6, 15), convey a pleasant atmosphere to the reader. The title itself creates an affectionate attitude with the connection of Papa and waltz. The choice of words and details are used systematically to produce thoughts to the reader of happiness and affection, thus, establishing the tone of this poem.
Although the dance between him and his father was rough and aggressive, the very fact that Roethke chose to write about the waltz indicates that it is a special moment he remembers sharing with his father. The poet has a remarkable ability to describe the moment and not his feelings. This is what makes "My Papa's Waltz" so interesting and leaves so much to interpretation.
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.
In a typical family, there are parents that expected to hear things when their teenager is rebelling against them: slamming the door, shouting at each other, and protests on what they could do or what they should not do. Their little baby is growing up, testing their wings of adulthood; they are not the small child that wanted their mommy to read a book to them or to kiss their hurts away and most probably, they are thinking that anything that their parents told them are certainly could not be right. The poem talks about a conflict between the author and her son when he was in his adolescence. In the first stanza, a misunderstanding about a math problem turns into a family argument that shows the classic rift between the generation of the parent and the teenager. Despite the misunderstandings between the parent and child, there is a loving bond between them. The imagery, contrasting tones, connotative diction, and symbolism in the poem reflect these two sides of the relationship.
Regardless of the interpretation one possesses, may it be seen as abusive or loving, it is clear that the poem is more "richly ambiguous" than onlookers might have felt in the first reading (McKenna). After analysis of the poem, Bobby Fong compares it to that of a seesaw in saying, "the elements of joy, are balanced against the elements of fear." Although the certainty of tone may never be known, a further look at aspects that contributes to the writing give viewers' good insight in the mind of Theodore Roethke. Readers frequently hold contradictory interpretations of "My Papa's Waltz," depending on what personal experience they filter the reading through. In the end, critics agree that there is a darkness to the poem that is definite, but equally so, an abundance of love that is undeniable.