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
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 ...
“My Papa’s Waltz” by Theodore Roethke is a representation of the journey toward reconciliation of the love and the fear that the speaker, a young boy, has for his father, and is an extended metaphor for the way that we balance the good and bad in our lives. Whilst reading this poem it is impossible to determine definitively whether it is truly about a dance or if the speaker is actually being abused. However, I don’t believe that it really matters either way. Actually, I believe it is this ambiguity and push and pull between the two extremes that creates the overall sense of struggle that comes with the reconciliation of the facets of the father and son’s relationship. This dance between love and fear is accentuated by Roethke’s use of ambiguous diction, end rhyme, and iambic trimeter.
I have elected to analyze seven poems spoken by a child to its parent. Despite a wide variety of sentiments, all share one theme: the deep and complicated love between child and parent.
Despite all the controversy one must acknowledge the literary devices used to make this poem as famous as it is. One of the literary devices that helped shape “My Papa’s Waltz” was imagery. For example, Roethke uses “beat time on my head”, “palm caked hard”, and “battered on one knuckle” to give the reader a different interpretation of the memory he is telling. This helps form many controversy in determining the meaning behind the poem because one might think of this as the child is getting beat severely. The author uses “hung
To begin with, in the first stanza the speaker states "The whiskey on your breath could make a small boy dizzy" (1-2) that clarified that the father was drinking and his breath reeked. In addition to, "But I hung on like death such waltzing was not easy" (3-4) it seems as though the speaker was afraid to encounter his drunken father and having to dance with him which would be arduous because he's drunk. The second stanza starts with "We romped until the pans slid from the kitchen shelf” (5-6) the term "romp"
Child abuse is physical mistreatment that unfortunately happens to children everywhere around the world. In the same way, the poem “My Papa’s Waltz” by Theodore Roethke, describes and gives the readers an insight of what child abuse is like. The poem presents a relationship between a drunken father and his son. Therefore, the setting, sensory details, and word choice of the poem allows the reader to understand the violence the little boy goes through after his father returns from work.
The poem “My Papa’s Waltz” by Theodore Roethke uses imagery and a tone to paint a picture of something but, means something different. This idea is to illustrate that things are not always what they seem. In doing so as humans people like to see or think the worst. This poem exploits this flaw and means something completely different. It uses imagery to make the poem appear to be a father abusing his daughter. This poem depicts the father as a man who drinks way too much and takes his anger out on his daughter shown here, “The whiskey on your breath could make a small boy dizzy,” (Line 1 and 2) In fact that is not the case at all the tone is very serious even though the deeper meaning of the poem is happy. The author utilizes these two literary elements elements very well to challenge the reader to dig deeper.
"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
The olfactory imagery in the first and second lines of the poem gives the reader an immediate sense of what the speaker smelled as he danced with his father. The father of the speaker has consumed so much whiskey that even the scent of his breath was enough to make the speaker dizzy as a young boy (1, 2). As the speaker waltzed with his intoxicated dad, he “hung on like death” simply to avoid being thrown off by his rambunctious father’s romping (3). Roethke uses a simile here to compare the boy clinging onto his father to death. By bringing in the morbidness associated with the word “death” so early on in the poem, Roethke creates a darkness that lingers behind the apparent happiness of the speaker’s memory. The visual imagery Roethke uses to describe the father’s hand that was “battered on one knuckle” and his palms that were “caked hard by dirt” gives the reader an idea that the father has come home from a long day of strenuous work (10, 14). After a hard day of physical labor, the father comes home to drink, but he also makes sure to spend time with his son before the day is over. This obvious effort that the father puts in to be with his son shows just how much he truly loves him. In the final two lines of the poem, Roethke wrote “Then waltzed me off to bed/ Still clinging to your shirt” (15, 16). The brilliant ending to this poem goes so much deeper than just a dad putting his child down to sleep for the night. The memory ends with the speaker clinging to his father’s shirt, like if he were to let go of his father, he may never see him again. Roethke’s concluding sentence of his poem makes the memory seem like a dream, and the child clings onto his father because he knows that it is nothing more than a dream. The child knows that when he wakes up from this dream he will be faced with the harsh reality
The Waltz symbolizes the abuse that the speaker is going through and taking the reader’s attention off the violence. “Then waltzed me off to bed/Still clinging to your shirt” (15-16), this symbolizes that it is the “last dance” and the little boy did not want to let go of his father. As stated in, schoolworkhelp, this poem can be looked as the “Petty Herst syndrome”. Which means that having a reality that is so powerful that one feels incapable of any other reality, fearing it will be worse. “At every step you missed”(11), this is helps the overall metaphor because the dad misses the steps in the waltz. The act of the Waltz conveys a happier image, however, the metaphor conveys a darker
An abusive and alcoholic father? Or a hardworking and loving dad? Theodore Roethke’s poem “My Papa’s Waltz” is about a young boy, who is the author in the poem, reminiscing the fond memories he had with his dad. The author lived a depressing life growing up because he lost his dad from cancer at the young age of fifteen. In effect, he encourages his readers to spend time with their parents and be good to them because once they’re gone, their lives will change dramatically, especially if they have a strong bond between them. While the subject of “My Papa’s Waltz” has spurred passionate academic debate from professors, scholars, and students alike, the imagery, syntax, and the diction of the poem clearly support the interpretation that Theodore
Every boy has a father, good or bad they have one. Well in the poem, “My Papa’s Waltz, written by Theodore Roethke, there is somewhat a dysfunctional relationship between a father and his son. Although this is a fairly short poem, the words speak volume giving one much imagery in reference and between the two characters. In this poem you get a feel of a son’s affinity toward his father, as well as the father’s relationship toward his son. Not only is the author able to convey the father and son’s relationship but, he’s able to convey the relationship that the father has with alcohol. Many poems are lengthy and all seem to have a theme, however, this poem is short, to the point it, and isn’t easy to figure out exactly what the author had
The father and son could have been playing, and dancing very hard with his son. This would led to the pans falling from the kitchen shelf. This would have also led the mother the mother's “countenance” because she would be worried by the roughly playing and the mess they could have made in the kitchen. In the third stanza it states “The hand that held my wrist-Was battered on one knuckle.” This phrase leads the readers to infer that his father's hand that held his wrist was injured on one of his knuckles. The hard working father could have gone to work and injured his ankle causing him to be hurt on one knuckle. In the next stanzas it states “At every step you missed-My right ear scraped a buckle.” These line lead the audience to believe that the because the father had a little to drink this would make it difficult for him to not to follow along so well, and miss a step. After missing a step that would cause the son to scrape his ear against his belt “buckle”. In the poem the author/ poet also uses a rhyme scheme in the end of each stanza. Using a ABAB rhyme
It wasn’t easy fighting these battles with his stronger, drunk father. It also wasn’t easy to fight back, at the same time, because of that moral dilemma, that Roethke is fighting his own parent. This shows how strained and tormented their relationship was, that a son is defending himself from his own father. Roethke also says, “we romped until the pans slid from the kitchen shelf”, instead of just saying that they fought so hard that the pans fell from the shelf. He used “romped” because he wants to bring the reader back to the dancing aspect of the scene, and not focus on the brutality of the situation. He is going back to how the child version of himself saw this, and what he really wanted to see. This is not a graceful dancing scene, there are people being injured and chaos is occurring. Waltzing, in this poem, is representative of the father and son’s physical altercation. It hurts too much for Roethke to say that his father is abusing him, so he uses waltzing. This shows how destructive their relationship was and how he was barely coping with his father’s drunken states. These altercations most likely happened throughout his whole life, living with his parents, and it seems that they have deeply scarred
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.