Tone Of My Papa's Waltz By Theodore Roethke

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In the poem My Papa’s Waltz by Theodore Roethke, there seems to be two conflicting tones at play. There is a tone of love and admiration that is seen through the eyes of an innocent child, but there is also the tone of an experienced man who is looking back on his childhood and is finally acknowledging the harshness with which he was treated and the helplessness he felt.
In the poem, there are certain words and phrases that convey a tone of admiration and love towards the narrator’s father. The word papa in the title connotes tenderness and affection, opposed to other words that could have been used in its place like ‘father’. This simple word creates a loving a child-like tone in the title, which carries on through the rest of the poem. …show more content…

As him and his father commence their waltz, the narrator describes that they “romped until the pans/ Slid from the kitchen shelf” (5-6). The word romp means to frolic in a lively manner, creating an image of a father playfully dancing with his son. This innocent picture makes the tone of the poem lighthearted and it seems as if the narrator is enjoying his time with his father. At the end of their dance, the narrator’s father “[waltzes him] off to bed” (15). This phrase depicts a father lovingly bringing his son to bed and tucking him in for the night, creating an affectionate tone. The narrator also recalls that he was still “clinging to [his father’s] shirt” (16). Children, and people in general, only cling onto things that …show more content…

The narrator describes the smell of whiskey on his father’s breath, saying it could “make a small boy dizzy” (2). The word dizzy connotes confusion and an unpleasant sensation, and the mentioning of alcohol brings to mind visions of stumbling and poor decision making. These images add up to create a helpless tone, as if the narrator is at the will of his drunken father. The narrator also states that he “ hung on like death” (3). Using the word death establishes a feeling of harshness and the potential for harm, which adds to the tone that the narrator is resigned to the way his father mishandles him. The narrator remembers that his father “held [his] wrist” and not his hand (9). People hold their children by the wrist when they are forcing them to do something, and this creates a tone of helplessness as the narrator is dragged along to participate in his father’s drunken dance. The narrator also recalls that sometimes his “right ear scraped a buckle” as his father jostled him around the house (12). The word scrape connotes pain, and although not intentionally, his father’s dance was rough and could cause the narrator small injuries, adding to the resigned and helpless tone. The narrator describes that his father “beat time on [his] head” (13). The act of keeping time by tapping

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