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Concepts in how to read literature like a professor
Outline how to read literature like a professor
Concepts in how to read literature like a professor
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If poems are made well, they will paint a picture that allows the reader to truly get a mental image of what the author is trying to convey. Through use of literary devices, author Theodore Roethke, expresses in his work “My Papa’s Waltz” a girl’s entire family life in a matter of four stanzas. This poem talks about the how a father who is drunk, dances with his daughter before he takes her to bed.
Roethke puts the whole poem in the voice of the daughter where everything is coming from her perspective. The first stanza talks about how her father was so drunk that she was feeling nauseous. She says that waltzing they were doing was not easy for her with how her father was spinning around. In the second stanza she talks about how pots and pans
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were falling off the shelves from then running into them from the fathers inability to stay up straight due to the fact he had had too much to drink. Roethke goes on to say how the mother had a frown covering her face. The third stanza talks about how her father had a bruise on his knuckle and that every time her father stepped wrong, the girl’s ear would jam up against her father’s belt buckle. In the last stanza, Roethke tells how the girl talks about how the father would keep time by patting his dirty hand on the girl’s head. Her father then danced her to bed. One of the literary devices that Roethke uses throughout his poem is figure of speech.
He uses words and examples that imply something but doesn’t explicitly describe it. One example of this is when he is talking about the mother’s expressions. “My mother’s countenance could not unfrown itself.” (205) The word countenance, according to Webster’s Dictionary, means: “the appearance of a person's face: a person's expression” This is an interesting word to be used here. It could be saying that the kind of face her mother was making was one of such discus at her drunken husband dancing that there was no way she would ever smile. However that is not something Roethke does in his poem, he leaves it up to the reader to decide if he means that, or if it means that the mother had had such a heard life that even if she was laughing to herself at her ridiculous husband, the years of pain would not allow her face to form the feelings inside. Another example of the figure of speech is at the end of the last stanza. Roethke describes the father taking the child to its bedroom by saying that they danced to bed while the child hung onto the father’s shirt. (206). The way that line is phrased allows for another chance for the reader to understand the passage in their own way. One way it could be read would be that the child was so scared of running into something that it hung on to the shirt scared that it would be hurt. While another idea would be that the child loved its father so much that …show more content…
the idea of going to bed and not being with its father was a sad thought and wanted to hang onto its father as long as possible to be able to spend more time with him. Another literary device Roethke uses is simile. An example of the simile is: “but I hung on like death” (205) Roethke did not mean that the girl was literally hanging on for her life but he uses this word to allow the reader to understand what kind of position the daughter was in with her father dancing. Another example of a simile is “you beat time on my head” (206). When Roethke says that the child’s father “beat” on its head, it doesn’t seam like he is saying he literally struck his head, more so he is saying that the father would pat the child on the head to keep time as someone would keep rhythm at a concert. Imagery was Roethke’s strongest literary device throughout his poem.
Throughout the whole poem, Roethke painted a really clear picture of the life of this girl. He gives a clear image of what is happening but still leaves it up to the reader to fully understand what is happening. From this poem there are two different ideas of what the story is trying to say. The lines “The whiskey on your breath could make a small girl dizzy,” “my mother’s countenance could not unfrown itself,” and “At every step you missed my right ear scraped a buckle”(205) all paint the picture that the father is an alcoholic that is hurting his daughter while his wife stands watching while being mad at the father for his actions. The mother did not act upon her frowning face, which could also take the poem a completely different direction. It could also be seen as a, while drunk, father was playing with his daughter while the mother watched on. “We romped until the pans slid form the kitchen shelf” (205) Roethke uses the word romped with means: “an enjoyable time of rough and noisy play.” (Webster’s) This is saying that while it was creating a mess, it was all in good fun. The reason the mother is not laughing could maybe because of the hard life that family has gone through. “You beat time on my head with a palm caked hard by dirt.” (206) This is showing that the father is a hard workingman. This could mean that the family has gone through a hard history, which has caused the mothers face to become
permanently in a frown shape. Roethke could be implying either one of these ideas but that’s what makes this passage so great, his use of imagery creates such an immaculate picture that it allows the readers to almost tell their own story. Even though this poem is only four stanzas, because of Roethke’s ability to use literary devises to such great effectiveness, it creates the ability to tell a family’s entire life story in such a small amount of words, while still allowing the reader to understand the family in their own way. Whenever people are writing literary works, it is essential to use literary devises in their work. This allows the reader to better understand what the author is trying to convey and allows for a better picture to be painted in the reader’s head, allowing them to enjoy the story more as they read along.
What the narrator remembers about his childhood is "waltzing" across the kitchen with his father. The narrator is an adult when he writes this poem looking back to this "dance" across the floor as encompassing the feeling of his childhood. His father would come home smelling of whiskey and "waltz" his son around the kitchen. The two of them "romped until pans slid from the kitchen shelf" (Roethke). This hyperbole also shows the silliness of the situation. The mother is not too happy about this little romp as shown by the frown on her "countenance." The fact that the author did not just use the word face seems to say something about the child's more stern relationship with his mother. As they dance, when the boy misses a step his ear scrapes his dad's belt buckle painfully, and finally the father whisks him off to bed. This is obviously a defining moment in his childhood.
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.
There is more that reveals what Roethke is trying to say. Roethke writes, “The summer house shaped like a village band stand/–And grandfather’s sinister hovering hand.” (2.3,2.4). Roethke starts again by describing the house and things in it. And once again the reader gets hit with these thoughts. He uses a simile to describe the house as a village bandstand. A house that is alone and one of those places you go to getaway. The more important thing is that he uses a metaphor to say “-And grandfather’s sinister hovering hand.” He remembers that about the house. This is where the reader gets the thought that his grandfather was an abusive man. Roethke remembers that sinister hovering hand right before he was physically hurt. Like he is looking at the house and he is seeing the hand, because he was scarred with these memories.
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.
Inevitability at one point in most of our lives we have to deal with some type of hardship. A lot of us have experienced first hand or known someone who has had the unfortunate experience of dealing with a close friend or family member who becomes abusive and aggressive because of drug or alcohol related problems. My Papa’s waltz is a poem that tells the story of a young boy dealing with an abusive father and a broken home. Despite the initial light atmosphere of the poem Theodore Roethke uses strong and powerful language to convey an underlined meaning to their dance. My Papa's Waltz is a poem of fear, all the more horrible because the boy is terrified and hurt by his father, even in play, yet he clings and hangs to him showing how strong he is despite his age and through his actions he illustrates his love and patience for his troubled father.
One of the ways Roethke has described the abusive relationship is through the use of verbs. To set the stage of the night, Roethke starts off the poem by saying, “The whiskey on your breath Could make a small boy dizzy;” (line 1-2), which implies that his father has drank a lot. Roethke has used several verbs in the poem to describe what is going on, which give off a very violent vibe. Roethke used, “hung”, “held”, “scraped”, “beat”, and “clinging” to show us the abuse he suffered. The order in which the verbs have been positioned is interesting too. It is Roethke who “hung” on to his father, “scraped” his
The poem imaginatively re-creates a childhood encounter with his father. It may be read as an uplifting memory of a happy day, however when one engages further into investigating Roethke’s work, a darker perspective of the event emerges (Bachelorandmaster, 2015). Although we cannot identify that this poem is explicitly about his father from just simply reading it, when deeply exploring Roethke’s relationship with his father further, it can be identified that both the poem and relationship are connected in this way. The story conveys both the fathers love for the son and the son’s fear of this overpowering event, a combination which explains why the poem haunted so many of it’s readers (Shmoop,
Roethke first addresses Jane by describing her, "neck curls, limp and damp as tendrils" to create this positive sense of who Jane is (line 1). In order for one to understand the comparison, we must know that a tendril is a branch of a growing plant. This simile allows to see that just as a plant, the teacher has seen Jane blossom and grow into the strong women she was before dying. The poem goes on to elaborate on the complexity of the tendrils stating how Jane no longer is, "waiting like a fern" out in the field. These two similes tie in well as tendrils are the beginning of life full of ambiance and excitement sprouting high becoming beautiful plants. While, ferns are dead sitting lonely in masses in a field waiting for the coming of a new day. We can see the speaker cares a great deal about Jane by describing such vivid imagery. The complexity of the relationship can further be analyzed showing what a blessing it was to have a passionate young women in the classroom and his life vibrant like a tendril, however, his life is gone and lonely like the ferns which gaze endlessly along the fields. The speaker is finding it unbearable to leave his memories of Jane behind for he truly loves and cares about
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
Notably, the denotation “romping” can mean, “to play roughly and energetically” (Google), but it can also have a connotation that the boy is hurt or in pain. Furthermore, stanza two also mentions the “mother’s countenance/ could not unfrown itself” (7- 8) which is unusual in the description of playing. While the father and son are playing, the mother is standing aside frowning. Her unhappiness contrasts the playful description of the waltz, which gives the poem its sense of seriousness. In other words, it tells the reader that there is much more happening here than the father and son playing. The drunkenness of the father has caused him to become careless and rough with the boy. The mother is clearly unhappy about the situation, but only watches as the two continue their
Poetry is a special gift, which unfortunately is not given to all of us. Mr. Theodore Roethke (1908-1963) was an American poet with this magnificent gift. Mr. Roethke is regarded as one of the most accomplished and influential poets of his generation (Wiki). His poems present figurative language, which means that it says something, but is not actually what it means, or it can be interpreted in a totally different way. Theodore Roethke’s poem, “My Papa’s Waltz” has imaginary and mixed feelings between the speaker, which is a child, and his father. After having researched a lot more about the Poet’s life I find this poem highly eloquent and fallacious. Even though, it’s a brief poem I can say that this talks about Mr. Roethke’s childhood. This
“Roethke was a great poet, the successor to Frost and Stevens in modern American poetry, and it is the measure of his greatness that his work repays detailed examination” (Parini 1). Theodore Roethke was a romantic who wrote in a variety of styles throughout his long successful career. However, it was not the form of his verse that was important, but the message being delivered and the overall theme of the work. Roethke was a deep thinker and often pondered about and reflected on his life. This introspection was the topic of much of his poetry. His analysis of his self and his emotional experiences are often expressed in his verse. According to Ralph J. Mills Jr., “this self interest was the primary matter of artistic exploration and knowledge, an interest which endows the poems with a sense of personal urgency, even necessity” (Contemporary Authors 476).
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 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.
Roethke uses imagery and diction that makes the reader feel different emotions. The imagery of a father with whiskey on his breath and battered knuckles paints a picture of a scruffy, rugged man. On the other hand, the diction and imagery of “waltzing” in line 4 creates a soft and sweet image of a father and child dancing. The image of “My right ear scraped a buckle / You beat