Analysis Of My Papa's Waltz

Roethke's “My Papa's Waltz”

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.

The major themes of the poem reflect the poet's own inner life and his struggle with the loss of his father. Through this complicated and intricate poem the inner feelings of the poet are made manifest through the speaker's tone towards the father. The exchange between father and son represents a magical moment in the speaker's childhood: dancing the waltz with his father. In the second stanza, the poet comments “My mother's countenance / could not unfrown itself (Roethke 7-8).” Here the poet seems to regret the fact that he hoarded his father's time after a long day at work, when his father could have been s...

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...is father brought to small town Michigan. Matt Forster, a biographer, states that “Much of Roethke’s poetry would draw on the imagery of his childhood, such as the landscapes of Michigan, the dirt and roots he remembered from working in the nursery, and memories of his father (Forster 2005).” Roethke wrote about his childhood throughout his literary career, and his poems reflect small town life in Michigan and the important people with whom he was surrounded during his childhood and adolescence.

Works Cited

Booth, Alison, and Kelly Mays, eds. The Norton Introduction to Literature. 10th ed. New York: Norton, 2010.

Fong, Bobby. Roethke's “My Papa's Waltz” College Literature. Vol. 17, No. 1, (Winter, 1990), pp. 72-82.

Forster, Matt. “Theodore Roethke.” Theodore Roethke (2005): 1. MasterFILE Premier. Web. 8 March 2014.