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Mother to son analysis by langston hughes
“my papa’s waltz” by Theodore Roethke analysis
My papa's waltz” analysis
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The poem from Roethke, “My Papa’s Waltz,” is a very detailed poem with a very sad story line. The description of the title that does not correlate with the poem but that is what makes the poem interesting to me. The young boy in the poem is not clearly “waltzing” with his father and the dancing in the poem is not graceful when describing the pans, wrist, and right ear. The poems “Mother to Son,” by Hughes was by least one of my favorite poems. I enjoyed the story line used of the mother’s struggles and how she describes them to her son. This poem can related to many mother’s out there with sons and trying to encourage them. I love how the writer describes to her son to never give up and overcome the challenges. The poem “The lake Isle of Innisfree,” by Yeats is one of my favorite poems. I enjoyed how the poet describes how he decides one day to get up and go to a place that is peaceful. Also how he describes how he will build his small cabin of clay and wattle and bee hive. He describes the scenery to be very quiet from morning to night. Seems a lake I would like to visit one day. …show more content…
Makes you analyze further into the dream. Also enjoyed how he started the poem with a question which I have not seen in many poems. It gets the reader to thinking. “Acquainted with the Night,” by Frost was one of my least favorite poems. The poem is noted to myself to be very dark and depressing. He describes this lonely night not be his first time but he has been acquainted to it by walking it various times. It is depressing how he describes the city lane and the cry he hears from another
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.
The poem “Likewise” by Langston Hughes is about Jews living and selling products in Harlem. But looking deeper into the writing reveals references to the creeping increase of antisemitism in the 1930’s and 1940’s.
In the poem "My Papa's Waltz" by Theodore Roethke, the speaker is reflecting on a childhood experience involving his father. Through diction and details, the speaker conveys his complex attitudes toward his father. When first read it, it appears the young boy is afraid of his father. The first line of the poem writes: "The whiskey on your breath; could make a small boy dizzy." Apparently, the father likes whisky and the smell of it is remaining on his person, which causes the young boy's aversion. The diction of "dizzy" depicts the young boy is getting overwhelmed by the smell of the drink. Imagine how a little child feels when he notices the strange smell of his parent, He feels weak or even scared. That is exactly what the young boy feels when he saw his drunken father with the distasteful smell. The poem then goes on saying: "but I hung on like death, such waltzing was not easy." This simile compares the fear of the boy to the death. To have a feeling of death is not a pleasant feeling, therefore when they started "waltzing"; the young boy thinks it is "not easy." This shows that ...
As the man in the poem continues his journey, he takes time to notice things in detail. This I believe is a way of cherishing what you might not see again. This also shows us that he cares about the community to notice the little things one last time. For example Edward Field describes the "magnolia trees with dying flowers" and the "bright spring day" (qtd. in Schwiebert 41). The man even picked up the local newspaper before he left, this shows that he cares what is going on in the town and feels enough apart of the community to find out what is in the newspaper that day.
This poem shines importance on going through thing s and how you have to start some place. I found this book very inspirational and it has refreshed my perspective on life. My people that came before me went through so much just so that I could even have to opportunity or ability to read this book and wright a review on my own.
“My Papa’s Waltz” by Theodore Roethke is a representation of the journey toward reconciliation of the love and the fear that the speaker, a young boy, has for his father, and is an extended metaphor for the way that we balance the good and bad in our lives. Whilst reading this poem it is impossible to determine definitively whether it is truly about a dance or if the speaker is actually being abused. However, I don’t believe that it really matters either way. Actually, I believe it is this ambiguity and push and pull between the two extremes that creates the overall sense of struggle that comes with the reconciliation of the facets of the father and son’s relationship. This dance between love and fear is accentuated by Roethke’s use of ambiguous diction, end rhyme, and iambic trimeter.
"My Papa 's Waltz," by Theodore Roethke 's, is a poem about a boy who expresses his affection for his father, but at the same time expresses a sense of danger that comes from the father. The poem appears to be a snapshot in time from a child’s memory. The uplifting experience is created through the father and son’s waltz while the father’s uncontrollable movements juxtaposes the menace of the drunken father.
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
In the poem, “Traveling Through the Dark”, the author, William Stafford, uses many poetic devices that enhance the true meaning of the poem. The poetic devices found in the poem include poem’s persona, tone, word choice, imagery, symbolism, and comparisons. Stafford uses these poetic devices to help the readers to experience and visualize the situation that the narrator is going through.
In “My Papa’s Waltz” by Theodore Roethke, was a great poem that can mean many different things to many different people of this world. To me I think it was just a boy who just wanted to spend time with his dad before he has to go to bed. The boy probably does not get to spend time with his dad that much. The father probably works all day and all week and this is the only time the boy gets to spend with him. Roethke use of words in this poem is amazing. The use of the words in this story can mean different things to the reader. The first word to look at is the word waltz. In the dictionary the word waltz is a dance for a fast triple meter song. This is just what the father is doing with his son but his is drunk and dizzy. “But I hung on like death: Such waltzing was not easy (Roethke)” The word death is not what people usually think but nobody can shake or get away from death. So the boy was holding on to his father where his father could not get away from him like the boy did not want him to go. “We romped until the pans Slid from the kitchen shelf (Roethke)” another word to understand is romped. The word romped means to play or frolic in a lively or boisterous manner. To go deeper in the definition boisterous means rough and noisy. While the father and the son are playing around dancing they are also messing up the house as well. Messing up the kitchen will make any mother mad and that is what happens next. Of out any other place in the house the kitchen is the woman’s throne room. “The hand that held my wrist was battered on one knuckle; at every step you missed my right ear scraped a buckle (Roethke).” In lines 9-12 you can tell that the father has came back from a long day of work. The father’s job has to be doing something wi...
Through the lonely speaker, a detached tone is expressed with the use of selective diction, deep symbolism, and reflective allusion working together to form the meaning of the poem that hardships bring us to detachment from life because it causes us to feel isolated from others.
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
False memory syndrome (FMS), also known as pseudomemories or illusionary memories, is defined as memories of traumatic experiences which are false, but the person determinedly believes to be true. These memories of traumatic experiences usually are associated with childhood sexual abuse (CSA) and even in rare cases satanic ritual abuse (SRA). False memory syndrome cases involving childhood sexual abuse are most commonly related to women and children. Also related with false memory syndrome is recovered memories, which is defined as the remembrance of childhood sexual abuse of which a person had no previous awareness of before. These recovered memories often take control over a person’s personality and change their behaviors and lifestyle. It is often difficult for people with false memory syndrome to see the possibility that their recovered memories may be incorrect. False memory