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What is the effect of my papa's waltz
Significance and features of my papa's waltz
Who is the speaker in my papa's waltz
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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.
However, neither the setting of the poem nor its events can be linked to the ballrooms where people dance waltz. The opening lines of the poem portray the narrator’s father as a drunken person “The whiskey on your breath/ Could make a small boy dizzy”. The dancer is anything but elegant, he doesn’t waltz gracefully but romps “until the pans/Slid from the kitchen shelf”. The poem is set in a family home, most likely in the kitchen. Thus, the narrator is trying to downplay the social connotati...
The poem takes the reader back in time for a moment to a small kitchen and a young boy at bedtime. The dishes have been cleared and placed on the counter or in the sink. The family is seated around the table. The father having a glass of whiskey to relax after a very hard day working in the family owned twenty-five-acre greenhouse complex. He is asked to take his small son to bed. The poem begins, “The whiskey on your breath could make a small boy dizzy” (Roethke line 1) enlists the imagery of what the young boy was smelling as he most likely climbed aboard his fathers’ large work boots for the evening waltz to bed. It is obvious this is an evening ritual, one that is cherished. The boy is aware of his fathers’ waltzing abilities and he concedes that he is up for the challenge. The irony of the statement, “I hung on like death” (Roethke line 3) is a private one, yet deeply describes his yearning for one more waltz with his father who passed away when Theodore was only fifteen years ...
My Papa’s Waltz and Those Winter Sundays are similar because they use tone, imagery, and sounds and rhythms to prove these two boys in fact love their abusive father. In both of these poems there is a movement from a cold and serious tone to a warm and happy one. The use of imagery successfully accentuates the good things the father does while marginalizing the bad. And the sounds and rhythms also add to the theme of love by manipulating how the poem is read. Roethke and Hayden are two skilled poets that have much control over the techniques they use. It is interesting that these poems are so alike and perhaps it is due to the time at which they were written. In any case, these two poets made a lasting impression on American poetry and will continue to appear in poetry anthologies for years to come.
The comparisons--North vs. South, city vs. country, technology vs. nature--are numerous and have been well documented in 20th century literature. Progress contrasts sharply with rooted cultural beliefs and practices. Personalities and mentalities about life, power and change differ considerably between worlds... worlds that supposed-intellectuals from the West would classify as "modern" and "backwards," respectively. When these two worlds collide, the differences--and the danger--rise significantly. This discrepancy between the old and the new is one of the principal themes of Gloria Naylor's Mama Day. The interplay between George, Ophelia and Mama Day shows the discrepancies between a "modern" style of thinking and one born of spirituality and religious beliefs. Dr. Buzzard serves as a weak bridge between these two modes of thought. In Mama Day, the Westernized characters fail to grasp the power of the Willow Springs world until it is too late.
The poem "My Papa's Waltz" uses imagery by especially appealing to the sense of touch. The sense of touch also helps the reader to better understand the abusive father theme. The third stanza concentrates on the actual act of abuse. The author, Roethke, describes the battle wounds on the father and son that are inflicted by the father. The father's hand "was battered on one knuckle" from hitting his son with a belt (10). This is apparent because the son's "right ear scraped...
My Papa’s Waltz presents a child’s telling of the waltz taking place between him and his father. As a verb, a waltz is “to move or walk in a lively and confident manner” (“Waltz”). The waltz described throughout the poem is quick and lively as the boy “hung on like death” (Roethke)
Childhood experiences seem to be the ones that are recollected most vividly throughout a person's life. Almost everyone can remember some aspect of his or her childhood experiences, pleasant and unpleasant alike. Theodore Roethke's poem "My Papa's Waltz" suggests even further that this concept could be true. The dance described in this poem illustrates an interaction between father and child that contains more than the expected joyous, loving attitude between the two characters. Roethke's tone in this work exhibits the blended, yet powerful emotions that he, as a grown man, feels when looking back on this childhood experience. The author somewhat implicates feelings of resentment fused with a loving reliance with his father.
The poem, “My Papa’s Waltz” by Theodore Roethke, is about a boy reminiscing about an incidence with his father. From the beginning, this poem states the conflict between a father and son involved in a rambunctious dance, but as it continues, the story suggests the dance may actually be a physical altercation. Within the line, “Such waltzing was not easy,” is the proposal this is not a singular incident, but rather a routine ritual between the boy and his father (Line 4). The speaker is an adult recollecting, to himself as the audience, a childhood memory of an incident with his father. As the poem opens, the child recalls his father engaging in act of the drinking whiskey to the extent that the fumes of his breath made him dizzy or lightheaded, as if the adrenaline coursing through his veins from wrestling or struggling with his father wasn’t enough to make him unsteady. The child is hanging on to his father as a way of protecting himself from the assault being inflicted upon him. When the narrator states within the simile, “But I hung on like death,” death symbolizes a force inescapable and not able to release its grasp (3). As the poem continues, the speaker uses the term “romped” to describe the movement within the waltz. A waltz is an elegant, flowing type of dance and one does not “romp” through a waltz. The two participants are causing such a ruckus, the mother’s pans slide off a shelf in the kitchen. As the mother looks on, she is silent with only a frown as an expression of her disapproval. The speaker states his father’s hand “was battered on one knuckle,” suggesting the hand had been injured possibly from another violent incident in the past (10). As the commotion continues, the child is “waltzed” into his bedroom, the ...
The first reader’s response of Theodore Roethke poem, My Papa’s Waltz, is pleasant and memorable in manner. The reader, a knowledgeable literature teacher, explained that as she read the poem she began visualizing the little boy recalling fond memories of his father lightheartedly and pure in nature caring for him as a child. Theodore Roethke’s “My Papa’s Waltz”: A Reader’s Response states, “For me the poem’s tone was one of fond recollection: that the adult speaker still remembers small details of this waltzing suggested to me that the child thoroughly enjoyed this dance” (1). The first reader foresaw no interpretation of remorse or malice in My Papa's Waltz. She was prepared to discuss her interpretation with her students and was abruptly surprised by the difference in opinion. Theodore Roethke’s
Roethke starts the poem with a statement; “The whiskey on your breath could make a small boy dizzy;” (552). Alcohol is dangerous to young children and the fact that alcohol is on Papa’s “breath” could make the “small boy dizzy” (552), and suggests the waltz was not a joyful one. Roethke uses metaphors, “but I hung on like death...” (552).
In the late nineteen forties, Theodore Roethke emerged with a poem that has been the source of much debate. "My Papa's Waltz," is an account of a relationship between son and father. Alas, many readers who are exposed to this piece fail to note the love present in the connection of the characters. In an attempt to illuminate the author's true intention several factors must be examined. After several examinations of Roethke's poem as well as learning of his childhood it is evident that this poem does not suggest an abusive environment, but is an appreciative account of the love and playfulness between the characters. Therefore, a successful interpretation of this poem will look beyond the four stanzas and study not only the history of the writing, but the life of the poet.
While the subject of “My Papa’s Waltz” by Theodore Roethke has spurred passionate academic debate from professors, scholars, and students alike, the imagery, syntax, and diction of the poem clearly support the interpretation that Roethke writes “My Papa’s Waltz” to reflect on a fond playful memorie between his father and younger self “waltzing.” The poem was published in 1942, a few years after his father had passed away. Many of his poem were about memories he had had with his father in his uncle's greenhouse. Roethke had received the news that he had a mental illness. He used his illness to as a way of exploring different ways to write and having a different perspective of things. In discussions of “My Papa’s Waltz,” one controversial issue
The poem “My Papa’s Waltz” is written by Theodore Roethke. In my opinion, this poem is about a son (the author could be writing about himself) dancing the waltz with his father before going to bed. Theodore Roethke imaginatively re-creates a childhood encounter with his father, but also begins to attempt to understand the meaning of the relationship between them. The story begins off with the father having a drink to relax, which then leads off to the father swinging his son, Theodore, around the kitchen in a bearlike dance (waltz). The story then ends as the father carries him off to bed. The theme of the poem is family. This is the theme of the poem because it is a moment in the life of a family: a father and son dancing around in the kitchen as the mother is looking upon them. Theodore emphasizes how dancing with his father was difficult, yet enjoying in the poem. “Then waltzed me
To be honest, it still is. Yet, my desire to bond with him mattered more to me. Roethke’s narrator in “My Papa’s Waltz” says, “I hung on like death” (l. 3) while waltzing with the child’s father. Whereas, I ask that my father doesn’t invite my siblings because “Just you and me is better” (l. 6) Both children desperately wanted quality time with their fathers because they knew at the end of the night their father would leave them whether it was because the father “waltzed [the child] off to bed” (l. 15) or because he is leaving for a trip (l. 10). “Daddy’s Girl” portrays my youth and natural tendency to desire my father’s
Waltz was a working man. By using imagery, the poet exhibits that the mistakes of his father may be forgivable, but Waltz worked hard the family and came after tired night to enjoy play with his son. When it comes to dance, some terms are used in poetry. Poet used the same terms. The line “At every step you missed” (Roethke, 11), gives the reader an idea of rough dance in-house. Poet also let the readers envision a dance between boy and his father with the connection of the lines, e.g. “you beat time on my head” (Roethke, 13). It is important to highlight over here that it is not just one factor of symbolism that lead me in this poem. Many other literary tools equally paved my ways to the
This shows that at this point, the father of the speaker of intoxicated to the point that the young boy could smell his breath and still feel the effect. At that point, the young boy did not seem to be repulsed by the action, and he would still hang on to his father as they waltz. However, the tone of the speaker shows deterrent and even repulsion of the way that his father acted. The relationship between the father and son is complicated with the child sometimes unsure if he is afraid or only feels indifferent to the father. The poem further says ‘but I hung on like death, such waltzing was not easy’