My Papa's Waltz By Theodore Roethke

Theodore Roethke is one of the most accomplished and influential American poets. He has published various volumes of award-winning and critically acclaimed poetry. One of his affluent poems is “My Papa’s Waltz” which was published in 1948. The poem depicts an image of a young boy waltzing with his intoxicated father. The voice of the persona in the poem contributes to the poem’s effectiveness since it is told from the young boy’s perspective. He is indirectly expressing his feelings regarding his father’s lifestyle. To summarize, the father had too much whiskey and began to waltz around the around the kitchen with his son. The waltz was extremely clumsy as the son kept scraping his ear on his father’s belt buckle. After the shenanigans, the young boy’s father waltzed him off to bed. Therefore, the theme of “My Papa’s Waltz” is the young boy’s reminiscent of his father’s alcoholism.

From my

perspective, the poem presents an image of the waltz between a young boy and his father to symbolize the corruption of their household as a result of his father’s alcoholism.

“The whiskey on your breath/ Could make a small boy dizzy/ But I hung on like death/ Such waltzing was not easy” (1-4). Alcoholism is a destructive condition to those closest to the alcoholic and it affects the family in several different ways as they suffer from a range of problems. Children may develop low self-esteem, loneliness, and fear of abandonment. Therefore, the young boy felt neglected by his father because he was not consistently present in his childhood due to his egregious alcohol consumption. The young boy despised the atrocious whiskey smell because it made him dizzy; however, he learned to tolerate the smell because he was afforded opportunity to spend quality time with his father by waltzing. He may have opposed the circumstance, but it was a chance to create a memory with his father, which is why he held on

like death because he loved his father, despite his irresponsible decisions. Also, “You beat time on my head/ With a palm caked hard by dirt/ Then waltzed me off to bed/ Still clinging to your shirt” (13-16). The young boy did not want the quality time with his father to seize because he rarely was granted it even when he was sober. He did not care if his father was intoxicated and kept holding on to him, hoping he would continue to waltz with him instead of going to bed. Moreover, spouses can live in constant conflict due to the effects of alcoholism. “We romped until the pans/ Slid from the kitchen shelf;/ My mother’s countenance/ Could not unfrown itself” (5-8). Therefore, this implies that the young boy’s mother was not fascinated with the father being intoxicated while playing with her son or making a mess because she would have to clean it up herself since he was not dependable.
Above all, children throughout the world lose a parent to alcoholism every day. For instance, presented in the poem “My Papa’s Waltz,” the young boy was neglected by his father due to alcoholism. Moreover, the theme of the young boy’s reminiscent of his father’s alcoholism was depicted through the symbolic image of waltzing.