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“my papa’s waltz” by Theodore Roethke analysis
Interpretation of My Papa's Waltz by Theodore Roethke
“my papa’s waltz” by Theodore Roethke analysis
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Feelings are something that can never find its way out of our system and it always builds up inside. There are many ways of letting out feelings and some use something like Waltz to represent what is going on. In Roethke’s “My Papa’s Waltz”, the tone reveals the speaker’s ambivalent feelings toward his father. The tone is something that makes the poem because it helps the reader understand what the situation is and why does it have that effect on someone. Also, the author created a persona to tell the story and let that character guide us through the poem. The speaker, Theodore Roethke, is very calm and does not see this experience as a horrific one. Tone, Persona, and speaker fall in the same category in the sense that this conveys the message …show more content…
of the whole poem and why is there certain feelings used. The title of this poem is a metaphor, the author expresses the beating of a child to a beautiful romantic dance, the waltz.
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 …show more content…
image. This poem holds a lot of information from the tone to the metaphor that has been used, however, this poem also contains a simile. A simile will include the connective like or as which gives a different meaning to a sentence. “But I hung on like death” (3), this simile includes the word death and it signifies that there is also a negative aspect to this waltz. Roethke put the word death towards the beginning to make the reader understand what the purpose of the poem is. Also, Literature folio, stated that death “hangs on” symbolizing the child wanting to freeze that moment because he is afraid of what will happen if he lets go. The simile allows the readers to understand the deeper meaning of the poem by using certain poetic devices. The use of imagery gives a poem come alive and adds more meaning to it.
The poem is told by the child’s view and everything is described in order for the reader to visualize what is happening. “The whiskey on your breath/Could make a small boy dizzy.”(1-2), Roethke starts off by describing the father through sense of smell instead of his facial features. Another use of imagery, “We romped until the pans/Slid from the kitchen shelf/My mother’s countenance/ Cold not unfrown itself.”(5-8), the kitchen is a mess and the mother only watches, providing no help. They “romped” until the pans fell, this creates an image of destruction because the dad is drunkenly moving through the kitchen and destroying everything. The mother only watches in despair and she had no power of the actions of the father. “The hand that held my wrist/Was battered on one knuckle” (9-10), the battered knuckle means that the father is violent and giving a strong image of how the father is. Roethke uses amazing imagery in order to make sense of the story. He wants the reader to connect with him and to visualize what he is trying to
portray. The poem holds many elements that helps us understand the meaning that is behind a poem. “My Papa’s Waltz”, is three beat and a four stanza poem that creates an image of a father who is blind and cannot see the love his child has for him. Throughout the poem we can see the feelings of the child and how his love for his father is unconditional. Through the pans falling off the kitchen, the whiskey smell, and the clinging to the shirt, this is a very emotional poem. All the elements are like peanut butter and the poem is strawberry jam. So if you don’t have the peanut butter there is no peanut butter and jelly sandwich.
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...
Theodore Roethke's poem “My Papa's Waltz” is a unique American poem which is written in iambic trimeter. The poem captures the sometimes intense relationship between father and son. Roethke's own father, a German immigrant, died when he was still a teenager. His father was a major inspiration in his life and images from his childhood appear throughout his poetry. A biographer, Matt Forster comments that “His poems are often explorations of his own psyche, using imagery from his childhood to describe his interior life (Forster 2005).” He became one of the best known American poets by the end of his lifetime in 1963. In the famous poem “My Papa's Waltz” the author uses musicality and deep psychologically-rooted themes to create a poem that is unforgettable and alive with action. The poem is composed in iambic trimeter which parallels the 1, 2, 3 tempo of a waltz. This feature helps in creating the illusion of musicality and dancing as is suggested in the poem's title. Thematically the poem comments on the oedipal complex, the intimate relationship between father and son, loss, memory and music.
My Papa’s Waltz has been compared to a generational litmus test. Depending on what generation the reader was born, could determine how the reader would interpret this poem. Each generation has its own views that have been developed in them for the language used to describe Papa in this poem. The whiskey on his breath and Papa’s hand beating on his head, both sound like a negative connotation. Depending on the experience of the reader, they can either be disturbed by these words or be drawn in closer to the poem. Theodore Roethke loved his father. Not only did he love him, but he idolized him and unfortunately lost him at an early age. This poem is a reflective memorial waltz written in iambic trimeter to honor his father and mother.
“My Papa’s Waltz” by Theodore Roethke can be interpreted in a few different ways. The most obvious one being that he was dancing around with his father, having so much fun that he did not want to stop. His father is very drunk though, which leads us to believe that it is no just a fun story of him and his father dancing one night. What Roethke is really trying to show us, is the abusive relationship he had with his father.
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)
However, this is countered by his first stanza, “The whiskey on your breath/ Could make a small boy dizzy;/ But I hung on like death:/ Such waltzing was not easy. (1-4)” From the first two lines, we as the reader get the impression that his father is possibly an alcoholic. While this may be the case, Roethke also shows that despite his father’s habits, he couldn’t resist holding an unbreakable connection to him. This is apparent because this incident seemed to be recurring enough to write a poem about it. In addition, Roethke writes that he “hung on like death,” and since death is inescapable and hangs on to everyone, we can assume that as a child he never wanted to be separated from his father. He then writes, “such waltzing was not easy.” This line itself speaks to the relationship between him and his father. The “waltz” of life between the two was not easy, but it is an inseparable dance between two entities. It isn’t until the next stanza where Roethke really shows us what is happening in this poem. “We romped until the pans/ Slid from the kitchen shelf;/ My mother’s countenance/ Could not unfrown itself.
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 tone of a poem can only by recognized when reading carefully and paying close attention to the words and what they might suggest. The rhyme scheme of My Papa’s Waltz is extremely relevant to the poem. For example, in the first stanza dizzy and easy create the rollicking rhythm, as does the following stanza’s with the same pattern. The structure of words create an almost "waltz" like melody. The phrase " we romped until the pans / Slid from the kitchen shelf" and " waltzed me off to bed" (Roethke 5-6, 15), convey a pleasant atmosphere to the reader. The title itself creates an affectionate attitude with the connection of Papa and waltz. The choice of words and details are used systematically to produce thoughts to the reader of happiness and affection, thus, establishing the tone of this poem.
The poem starts out with the daughter 's visit to her father and demand for money; an old memory is haunting the daughter. feeding off her anger. The daughter calls the father "a ghost [who] stood in [her] dreams," indicating that he is dead and she is now reliving an unpleasant childhood memory as she stands in front of his
... is a happy time between a father and his child. Through careful reading, that interpretation is not valid. In 1948, actions such as this may have been a part of life. Maybe that is why Roethke wrote the poem this way because the event was probably happening in many households and people then could identify with this. Because of the vivid imagery, the reader can feel the boy's pain and fear of his father. In this case, the waltz is not a bonding time between a father and his son. People now would identify with the son and find a hatred for the father because of the mental and physical toll this could have on a child. The father does his dance by "waltzing" all over his son.
Roethke's Use of Tone 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 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 ...
A poem’s diction plays a fundamental role in analyzing a poem, considering the text is all one needs in order to discover the meaning. My Papa’s Waltz is a fairly short poem, but the words have major impact. The word “whiskey” (Line 1) implies that the father is a drunk, and this makes the boy “dizzy,” (Line 2) or in other words, it sickens him. The poem claims the boy is small, making him sound fragile, playing into the next few lines of the poem. “Death” (Line 3) is a negative connotation, along with “battered” (Line 10), “beat” (Line 13), and “caked hard” (Line 14). “Romped” (Line 5) has a positive denotation suggesting harmless roughhousing. The word “countenance” (Line 7) does not flow within the stanza, sounding sharp and negative, paralleling the mother’s stern disapproval. “Hung” (Line 3) is past tense, therefore the poem is a reflection of an earlier time. “Waltzed” (Line 15) takes on a different meaning beyond the dance, making it a synonym for taking someone somewhere. Understanding the words of a poem was the first step in order to analyze My Papa’s Waltz using this methodology.
In the poem when Roethke father is in a drunk position he really isn't understanding his father's behavior towards him and so theirs this ambiguity going on with child. “The whiskey on your breath/ Could make a small boy dizzy” (lines 1-2) (pg-671). These line suggests that the dance might not be a joyful one. but also lines, “ hung on like a death” ( line3-3) (pg-671). and “beat time on my head.”(lines 13-13) (pg-671). The readers might thought that the father is being abusive to the son, but really the child didn't wanted to fall while