Theodore Roethke's "My Papa's Waltz" is a short poem about the memory of Roethke's father. This poem has a number of memories to tribute to Roethke's father. There are many good and bad memories about Roethke's dad with many examples to show us that he was a good and bad father.
In the first stanza the speaker gives us a description about his father. "The whiskey on your breath Could make a small boy dizzy", the father was a drunk which really explains a lot in the rest of the poem. In the next line the speaker says "hung on like death", which is not a coincident that he clings onto his father like death because his father died when he was fifteen years old. In the second stanza, "we romped" is used to show how the father and son used to
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waltz very clumsy and make a lot of noise. This was one of the only good memories that the boy had in the poem. The boy and his dad would waltz so clumsy that the pans started sliding off the kitchen shelf, which takes us into the next line about "My mother's countenance Could not unfrown itself." The mom was not too happy with the actions by the son and dad so her "countenance" or facial expression could not be unfrowned because they were making a mess. The third and fourth stanza is where the poem gets aggressive and crazy.
"The hand that held my wrist Was battered on one knuckle;" (line 12-13), this is when you can tell his father starts becoming more aggressive. The father is holding the little boys hand tightly, with his very rough knuckled hands. This poem is supposed to be about waltzing and dancing but in this stanza it is a very rough dance where he is most likely being dragged while dancing with his dad. Then in the next line the father was walking the son up the stairs while waltzing and his son kept scraping his ear against his belt buckle. What type of dad would let this happen to their son. The dad is obviously abusive at this point in the poem but it doesn't end there. "You beat time on my head With a palm caked hard by dirt" (line 17-18), this goes back referring to his rough knuckles and hands having to do something with what the dad does for a living. It also shows the aggressiveness of the dad, in the first line the son says u beat time on my head, this is showing me that the dad repeatedly time after time would beat his kid. The next line states that he got waltzed off to bed while he was clinging onto his dads shirt which has me thinking if he just got done beating his son and he just couldn't walk so he carried him to bed. The only nonaggressive part in this poem is when the son is finally in bed
asleep. In a nutshell, this poem was very sad because of the aggressiveness of the dad and how he would beat the son and make the house dirty. This poem opened my eyes and showed me that child abuse is way worse than I thought it was. I don't know why Roethke made this poem to remember his father by, to me it looks like he was just talking bad about his father and had to get it off his chest.
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.
He states, “The hand that held my wrist was battered on one knuckle; at every step you missed my right ear scraped a buckle” (Roethke line 9-12). This could be could be taken as a symbolism for an abusive father. The hand that was battered on one knuckle could be seen as a hand that has been in a fight. The statement of missing a step and scrapping my ear on a buckle could be seen as imagery of abuse or being lifted up and the child not being able to control his steps and being drug along in a fearful manner.
In the poem “My Papa’s Waltz” by Theodore Roethke, the speaker is reflecting on a childhood experience involving his father. Some people assume that this poem is about a happy relationship between a father and son while other people assume that this poem emphasizes hidden messages of parental abuse. In my
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 ...
Abuse is a difficult and sensitive subject that can have long lasting effects. These traumatic emotional effects are often intensified if the abuse happens at a young age because children do not understand why the abuse is happening or how to deal with it. There are many abuse programs set up to counter the severe effects which abuse can have. Even more, poets and writers all over the world contribute works that express the saddening events and force the public to realize it is much more real than the informative articles we read about. One such poem is Theodore Roethke’s My Papa’s Waltz which looks carefully through the eyes of a young boy into the household of an abusive father. Robert Hayden’s Those Winter Sundays is a similar poem from the perspective of a young adult reflecting back on the childhood relationship with his father and the abuse his father inflicted. These poems are important because they deal with the complex issues surrounding the subject of abuse and also show the different ways which children react to it. My Papa’s Waltz and Those Winter Sundays are similar poems because they use tone, imagery, and sounds and rhythms to create tension between the negative aspects of abuse and the boys own love and understanding for their father.
Today, people tend to believe that hitting a person is abuse. Although, many people can connect with ¨My Papaś Waltz¨ by Theodore Roethke, the intended audience is himself illustrating a past memory of his childhood. The controversy of the poem is whether itś a good or bad memory. While the subject of “My Papa’s Waltz” has spurred a passionate academic debate from professors, scholars, and students alike, the imagery, syntax, and diction of the poem clearly supports the interpretation that Theodore Roethke wrote “My Papa’s Waltz” to illustrate on a past memory of his drunk and abusive father.
Using a strand of harsh words including “beat,” “scraped,” “battered,” and “whiskey,” the narrator suggests an idea of a harsh relationship despite any fond memories that were discussed. If the narrator simply intended to reflect a warm commemoration, he could have used a strand of words that implied happiness or comfort. The author was clearly aware that at first glance, readers typically assume the poem is about an abusive relationship; nevertheless, he neglected to alter his poem, demonstrating the idea that negative memories of the father do exist.
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
"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.
Still even more evidence of these mixed feelings is illustrated in the third stanza. "This love dance, a kind of blood rite between father and son, shows suppressed terror combined with awe-inspired dependency" (Balakian 62). "The hand that held my wrist/was battered on one knuckle;/ At every step you missed/ My right ear scraped a buckle"(Roethke 668). The speaker's father's hand being "battered on one knuckle" is indicative of a man who...
“My Papa’s Waltz” is composed of four stanzas with four lines in each stanza. Each line is similar in length and the same number of rhymes. In each stanza, there are rhymes or rhymes combined with the first and the third lines or the second and fourth lines. Theodore Roethke’s poem, "My Papa’s Waltz," is often times misunderstood regarding the nature of the relationship between the father and son. Without having any prior knowledge of Roethke’s relationship with his father it is difficult to fully understand the meaning of this poem. Judging by the title, the person revealed in these lines is the boy’s father, and the boy is the speaker. The father is drunk on whiskey. He’s drunk to the point that the scent of his breath is too much for the boy. It is hard to decide if he is actually there, as there is nothing actually said between father and son, nor does the father respond to the boy. Rather, his son is possibly just imagining him. The line "I hung on like death" (Roethke 3), suggests that the whiskey is in fact causing the boy to become dizzy. The use of the word “death” so soon in the poem signals the reader that this poem is not merely a joyful memory. Suggesting the boy hung on “like” death is an example of a simile ("My Papa’s Waltz | Literature Folio", n.d., ). Furthermore, the "waltz" of the poem is a metaphor for the relationship between father and son, indicating the struggle between enjoying and fearing his father’s strength. The details used in describing what is taking place in the kitchen shows the pair is creating so much uproar that the pans are falling off the walls. These lines also provide the setting, the kitchen. A great deal of family life is spent in the kitchen – cooking, eating, and now, waltz...
This poem has a kept form. Even at a glance, it has a set form. It consists of four quatrains, each line being an iambic tritameter. The poem is about a young boy waltzing with his father. One can assume that the speaker is a young boy, or perhaps the poet reminiscing his youth. The father dances around in a haphazard manner, knocking over pans in the kitchen. Upon first glance, the tone is humorous. The picture one immediately forms is rather comical with the boy clinging on for dear life as his chuckling father spins him round and round, making a mess in the kitchen while the mother looks on discontentedly. However, the line, "whiskey on your breath could make a small boy dizzy" suggests the father's drunkedness and "at every step you missed my right ear scraped buckle" suggests the dance was not an altogether joyful one. Lines such as "hung on like death", and "beat time on my head" are might even lead the reader to think the father is abusive of the boy.
For instance, “The hand that held my wrist was battered on one knuckle" (9-10) the word battered in line 10 is being used at a sadistic state and that can conduct the readers to think that the father grabbed the child's wrist vigorously. Then, the next two lines it states "At every step you missed my right ear scraped a buckle" (11-12) that can indicate that he used a belt to beat the child because the word buckle can be relevant to a belt. The fourth stanza says "You beat time on my head" (13) that can mean that the dad hit his son’s head several times. Furthermore, it reads "With a palm caked hard by dirt then waltzed me off to bed" (14-15) these two lines prove that the father was convincing himself and the reader that it's only a dance that leads to "Still clinging to your shirt" (16) that can imply that he was still grabbing on to him before he went to
Theodore Roethke's history is significant to the tone and subject matter of his poetry. A poet of the Midwest, he combines a love of the land with his vision of the development of the individual. Roethke is often described as a confessional poet because of his use of modernist techniques to explore his psychology and life (Dunn). Many of his most successful poems are lyrical memories of his childhood. "My Papa's Waltz," is one such account. Theodore's father owned and operated greenhouses, and Theodore spent a great deal of time there in his youth. Many of his memories of these times became the subject of his writings. However, the poet's adolescent years were jarred by the death of his father from cancer in 1923, a loss that would powerfully shape Roethke's psychic and creative life. (Kalaidjian)
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