My Papa's Waltz Literary Devices

Relationship Between a Father and Son

Theodore Roethke was a famous poet in mid-century America. He was born in Michigan to Helen and Otto Roethke. While growing up his family depended on his father’s greenhouse that the family owned. His father loved to do anything that had to do with the outdoors. He spent many hours of his life working outside planting plants in the greenhouse. Roethke viewed his father as a stern man, who was serious almost all the time. So, when he wrote the poem “My Papa Waltz”, it was probably one of the few memories he had of his father dancing and acting silly. Theodore Roethke used psychoanalytic critism when he wrote “My Papa’s Waltz”, he looked back on an old childhood memory and wrote about it from his adult point of view. Most of Roethke’s poems used themes that contained power and vision. He also liked to emphasize on rhythm throughout his poems. In the poem “My Papa’s Waltz” he used an A, B, A, B rhyme scheme. The poem has a rhythm that goes smoothly with their “waltz”. Theodore Roethke uses imagery, symbolism, and metaphor in his poem “My Papa’s Waltz” to show the relationship between a father and son, it also

illustrates one of the more enjoyable moments Roethke had growing up with his father.
The beginning of the “My Papa’s Waltz” informs us that the father has had more than enough whiskey to drink.

“The whiskey on your breath could make a small boy dizzy” (Roethke 1-2) This shows that the father and son must be standing close by one another, in order for the son to be able to smell the alcohol coming from his breath. The next two lines give an example of a metaphor being used. “But I hung on like death Such waltzing was not easy” (Roethke 3-4) The author is showing that their “waltz” is hard because his father is drunk and staggering all over the place. When he said “hung on like death” he was sending the message that since his father is a drunk he never knows what to expect from him, which can make the waltz scary. He holds on to him tightly with a death grip just in case he gets a little too crazy or

rough.
In Stanza 2 it shows that Roethke and his father are playing rough inside the house and work their way into the kitchen, their horseplay causes them to knock the pans off the kitchen shelves. This helps illustrate that the poem was written by the boy of a family who might not of had much money because they have pots sitting on shelves instead of being in stocked away in cabinets. “My mother’s countenance could not unfrown itself” (Roethke 7-8) what he means was his mom was standing in the kitchen watching them and had a very disappointed look on her face, this sad look was because of the mess they were making. She knew she was going to be the one to clean it up. The disappointed look was also because she was not pleased with the fact that her husband was coming into their home drunk and playing too rough with their child. She wished they would just settle down and get ready for bed time. She chose not to say anything about their rough play because she was trying to be understandable to the fact that they were just bonding with one another.
The third stanza shows that the father is drunk, therefore his dance skills are not the best right now. He kept stumbling over his own two feet and was just all over the place. Every time his dad would take the wrong step, his son’s ear would scrape his belt buckle. The son was a small and short child that only stood up to his father’s waistline, that is why his ear would reach the belt buckle so easily.
The fourth stanza shows that Roethke’s father would try and keep up with the rhythm of the dance on his son’s head, but would beat on his head a little too hard. The dance did not have much of a rhythm anyways because of all the staggering his father was doing. It was a rough waltz. At the end the father and son continued to play rough all the way until they reached the bed to go to sleep. The son continued to hang on tightly to his father throughout the whole waltz.
Roethke’s main symbol he used in his poem is the “waltz”, it is to show that the father and son are dancing around the entire house. In line 5, the author chose to use the word “romp” this is what made it clear to readers that the waltz was not only dancing, but also playing rough at the same time. This is normal for most sons and fathers to do. This demonstrates that their relationship is a good one, they are able to rough house with one another and understand it is just play fighting. Since we know that Roethke likes to use power as a theme in his poems that is probably why he chose the title “My papa’s waltz”, to show that his father is in charge of leading their dance since it is “his” waltz.
Roethke uses quite a bit of imagery in “My Papa’s Waltz”. For example in lines 10 and 14 when he says, “was battered on one knuckle” and “with a palm caked hard by dirt”. He uses these lines to illustrate a picture for the readers of how rough his hands look. Roethke’s father works hard to provide for his family and uses his hands a lot during his labor. Roethke admires his father for his hard work. His father works in a greenhouse planting plants, that explains that his knuckles are beat up from working outside and the dirt on his palms is from planting plants and handling soil all day. Another example of imagery can be found in lines 5-6, “We romped until the pans slid from the kitchens shelf” this also illustrates a picture in reader’s heads of what the scene might have looked like. It paints the picture of a father and son roughhousing and end up bumping into the kitchen shelves and pans go everywhere, causing lots of ruckus in the house. Readers now view an image in their head of a time they were playing rough inside with a parent or sibling.
Roethke also uses many examples of metaphor in “My Papa’s Waltz”. One example would be in lines 11 and 12, “At every step you missed my right ear scraped the buckle” When I read the poem I thought of this as meaning the father is drunk and is stumbling while dancing, every step they took that was opposite of each other the son would scape his ear on dad’s belt. Once you think deeper it could be a metaphor to show that his father is not perfect and does make mistakes in life, but his son still stands by his side every step of the way.
Another example of metaphor can be seen in the last line, “Still clinging to your shirt”. The author chose to use this line to show that the son loved his father very much and would not let go of him. His sons can look past the fact that his dad has many flaws and drinks alcohol too much, he chooses to look at the good in his father and love him unconditionally. He clings to his shirt through the whole waltz. The shows no matter how rough their play can get he will still care for and love his dad with no doubt.
The poem “My Papa’s Waltz” can be viewed from a positive or negative viewpoint. When I read the poem I seen the good and positive in the poem. It is demonstrating a father and son horse playing, which is quite normal. Fathers sometimes choose to play fight with their sons in order to toughen them up and prepare them for life. The son in this poem understands that his Papa does not waltz with him to be mean, but he does this because it is there idea of a fun time. Even though his father was intoxicated, it was still a good childhood memory he has held onto.

Works Cited
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