My Papa's Waltz By Theodore Roethke

Looking Back on Youth

Many adults, often reminisce about their childhood days. They enjoy going back to the carefree days of innocence. We can almost hear the laughter of days gone by, as we feel a smile come across our face. It’s amazing how reminiscing can change our mood and how much joy it brings. A trip down memory lane is priceless and good for the soul. We get to visit with our loved ones, who are no longer with us, or those far away. In the poem “My Papa’s Waltz” written by Theodore Roethke, the speaker, reminisces back to his childhood with his father. The speaker suggests a dual interpretation —through the rhythm, word choice, theme, and tone—on the ritual of the special nightly bedtime waltz that father

and son share.
The rhythm in “My Papa’s Waltz” is an iambic trimester, which has three beats, that is the same as a waltz.

This poem has a simple ABAB rhyme scheme, which means that every other line within a stanza rhyme. The same rhythm as a waltz. Many of the rhymes, though, are slant rhymes, words that almost rhyme. According to Jim Baird, author of, "A summary and analysis of My Papa’s Waltz, “such as ‘could make a small boy dizzy’ and ‘Such waltzing was not easy.’ The additional foot produces a stumbling effect that adds to the poem’s description of a clumsy waltz,” (2). A foot refers to the extra feminine syllable at the end of the second or fourth lines. The stumbling effect also matches the father’s intoxicated unsteady waltz. “The Whiskey on your breath. / […] / Such waltzing was not easy,” (1,

4).
The word choice the speaker uses can be interpreted as negative or positive.

Some may interpret the father being abusive, because of the speaker using words such as “death, and beat,” (3, 13). The father does have whiskey on his breath, after working hard all day, but it is not clear that, the father is abusive. Perhaps the father uses alcohol in order to, relax so he can spend quality time with his son. Many times after working hard all day, people need to get a second breath, so they can have enough energy to have quality family time. People must also consider the time period. In the 1940’s -1950’s, men weren’t openly expressive about their feelings. They would rough-house and play tough to show their love, and bond. This is the father’s way of showing his love for his son. Roethke states, “But I hung on like death; /Such waltzing was not easy,” (3 - 4). The child was hanging on like death, because the father was unsteady on his feet, or he wasn’t ready to go to bed. It appeared that the father’s whiskey wasn’t the only thing making it difficult for the son, but also the difference in size. If the son is standing on his father’s feet, that will also make it more of a challenge. . According to the speaker, “You beat time on my head, / With a palm caked hard by dirt,” (13- 14). The father was beating time, on his son’s head to keep rhythm: He wasn’t beating his son on his

head.
In “My Papa’s Waltz,” Roethke unites two of his more important themes, his attempt to understand the relationship with his father and his use of the dance as a metaphor for life in general. The father and son share a nightly waltz, which brings them close together before bedtime. That is time put aside for them to bond and make memories. A waltz is a type of dance that someone must lead; the father is the one leading the child into the waltz and he doesn’t have much control of himself, therefore, the son is having a little difficulty keeping up. They are so rambunctious they are causing the pans slide off the kitchen shelf. “We romped until the pans / slid from the kitchen shelf,” (5-6). Life can also be interpreted as a dance. There are ups and downs, we may go round and round, get our toes stepped on, or it could be a smooth waltz. In life’s dance, sometimes we lead and sometimes we have to follow. According to Lisa Jadwin, “This dance is a parody of the familiar genteel waltz and reveals the depth and complexity of a son's sometimes joyful and sometimes painful relationship with his working-class father,” (1). We can’t always be in control.
The tone of” My Papa’s Waltz,” is set by whiskey on the father’s breath. Individuals must consider the tone in the boy’s life, was affected by his adolescence, puberty, and the challenge of having a terminally ill father. According to Baird, “Otto Roethke loved his son, but could not approve of his path in life; Theodore loved his father but was unable to demonstrate that love in ways that his father could understand. Worse, Otto died while Theodore was still a teenager, so the father never learned what a leading role in his chosen field the son would play — nor did Theodore have a chance during his father’s lifetime to resolve the differences between them,” (3). As children, we don’t understand that our parent’s expectations are for our own good. We as parents want what’s best for our children, and also expect more because we know their potential. The tone is set in the beginning, with the father having enough whiskey on his breath to make his son dizzy. In the last stanza as the father is waltzing the boy off to bed, the boy is clinging to his father’s shirt, because he’s not ready for the waltz to be over. “Then waltzed me off to bed / Still clinging to your shirt.”(15 -16). He could also be clinging to his father’s shirt because he doesn’t want their time to be ending.
Theodore Roethke’s poem “My Papa’s Waltz,” is often perceived the waltz between father and son as abuse. The waltz is clumsy, because the speaker is intoxicated and unsteady on his feet. The son gets his ear scraped by his father’s belt buckle, because of the difference in their size. The way the poem is written, it symbolizes the clumsy waltz. However, the elements at work in the piece, clearly reveal that the father and son show their affection to each other and bond during this dance. The son hangs on to the father’s shirt because he is not ready for the waltz to be over, he’s not ready to let his father go. In “Literary Contexts in Poetry: Theodore Roethke's 'My Papa's Waltz,'” Jadwin concludes, “While the poem can be read as a thinly veiled story about an abusive relationship between father and son, it also captures some of the fundamental joy a child experiences when playing with a parent and receiving that parent's undivided attention,” (1). Many things affect the way we see things as innocent children, experience seems to make things clearer. Hindsight is 20/20, and the more life we experience, the wiser we are and less innocence we have.