..."My Papa's Waltz" ENG/125 March 28, 2011 "My Papa's Waltz" My Papa’s Waltz is a fairly straightforward poem written in iambic triameter. The last word of the first and third line of each quatrain rhyme as does the last word of the second and fourth line. This poem is a reflection of an event in the life of a little boy, and because of the rhyming style of poem, it is clear it is written from a child’s perspective. The little boy recalls an experience dancing a waltz with his father in their home. Although there are many opinions circulating about whether or not his was a positive experience, I think it was. I think this is a memory of a small boy cavorting with his father. The first stanza tells the reader that the father has had perhaps too much whiskey to drink. The boy says that the smell of his father’s breath made him dizzy. This must mean that the boy is very familiar with his father in this drunken state. This does not necessarily mean that the boy was traumatized by this event, just simply that he knows his father has had some whiskey to drink. He recalls that he had to hang on tight and that it was not easy for him to hold on to his father during this waltz. The waltz is typically a slow ballroom dance in three-quarter time that give the impression that the dancers are gliding around the room. The boy’s dance with his father is hardly gliding around a room considering the boy says he “hung on like death” (Barnet, Burto, & Cain, 2011, p. 786). ...
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...My Papa’s Waltz The poem “My Papa’s Waltz” can easily be interpreted in two different ways. Before our class discussion, I was convinced that this was a somber poem that expressed a son’s love for his father, despite his father’s alcoholism and abusive ways. Although the poem states playful interactions between the father and son, the majority of the poem focuses on the father’s drunken aggression towards the boy. After discussing the poem in class, I realized, it is about a young boy, remembering a night with his father when they danced around the house aggressively. With this analysis, there is no intentional abuse on the father’s part, yet there is clear evidence of alcoholism, (“The whiskey on your breath”). Now I believe the poem is about that of my second interpretation, but both interpretations are satisfactory. There is a wide amount of evidence that, “My Papa’s Waltz,” is the story a young boy revealing the trouble he has lived through with his alcoholic father, while still possessing a great love for his dad. The boy would then be the narrator of “My Papa’s Waltz” and thus the son of an alcoholic father. It is easy to focus on the physical abuse, and anger the father has, which was targeted at the boy. In the first line of the poem, the son is speaking to his dad and says, “The whiskey on your breath/could make a small boy dizzy.” The son is telling his father, that his drinking is a problem, and the boy is worried. In the next line, he says...
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...Theodore Roethke is the author of the poem titled "My Papa's Waltz." Roethke is the speaker in the poem and is talking to his father. As he goes through the poem, he talks about the abuse, his mother's reaction, how he could not let go because the man was his father, and how he seems to have mixed feelings about his relationship with him. The author used interesting word choices to make the poem have multiple meanings depending on how someone would interpret it. The first-person speaker and his father have a complex relationship surrounded by an abusive relationship and a mixture of love and fear, yet the speaker does not resent his father. Throughout the poem the father abuses the son, the speaker. Lines 5 and 6 could be interpreted to say the father is being excessively violent towards the son which causes pans to fall off shelves. Lines 9 and 10 also seem to allude to the fact the father hits his son by mentioning the "battered knuckle." A child would be scared to be hit especially if it is their own father and the child is young as he says in the poem. Line 13 says "you beat time on my head." This line could be seen as anytime the speaker was late he would get hit in the head by his father. While the son faces the abuse of his father, he does not appear to...
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...In today’s world, our past experiences tremendously affect the way we interpret different situations, Theodore Roethke wrote a poem titled “My Papa’s Waltz.” This poem has a multitude of differing interpretations. For example, those of us who grew up with a terrible childhood might think of a boy being abused by his father; however, others who enjoyed their childhood memories with their father may interpret the poem to be about a father and son having fun together while dancing. While the subject of “My Papa’s Waltz” has spurred passionate academic debate from professors, scholars, and students alike, the imagery, syntax, and diction of the poem clearly support the interpretation that Theodore Roethke wrote “My Papa’s Waltz” to help his readers to visualize the abusive relationship between a father and his son. In fact, the imagery, word choice, and syntax that Roethke provides readers points to abuse. Roethke purposefully chooses words with negative connotations. Instead, most people would consider his diction bone-chilling or depressing. One example of negative language the author uses in the poem is,“But I hung on like death.” The author could’ve chosen a much kinder metaphor, one that sets a happy tone; instead, he chooses to compare “dancing” with his father something deadly. This kind of diction leads...
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...My papa's waltz poem Some language and images present a possibility of the presence of “violence” in my papa's waltz poem. For instance, the two opening lines establish drunkenness. There is also the suggestion of physical injuries to the boy such as his scraped ear supposedly caused by his father’s buckle. The portrayal of physical violence in the poem comes through the presentation of the father’s bruised knuckle suspiciously thought to be a result of a barroom brawl. The expectations of a father and a son depend on the relationship between the two. It is a tight connection that regardless of instances of roughness a never has the wish of losing the parent. The complications in the poem result from the memories of childhood presented by Roethke, which portray the hardships of growing up in a broken home and with an abusive father. However, there is the difficulty in making the differentiation of the imagery and symbolism used to determine the presence of happiness and sadness between the father and the son. There is no truth regarding physical abuse presented in the poem. The time of the authorship of the poem is clearly out of the period where there was any clear elaboration of child abuse. The reference made to the father as “papa” is an indication of affection between the father and the son. This rules out any instance of violence introducing the use of the word “beat” as an action for the movement of the dancer’s feet as they waltz. At the same time...
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...From abuse to carelessness, poems “The Whipping” by Robert Hayden and “My Papa’s Waltz” by Theodore Roethke both convey a sense of violence from the parent towards the son. Both poems implicate a potential abusive past of the abusers, similarly, which can be the cause of their acts of violence. The physical abusive, however, is not shown to be uncommon but to be very frequent. Although the poem “My Papa’s Waltz” persuades a precious father-son moment, its literal focus is predominantly on the father’s drunken aggression towards the boy. The speaker’s experience in these two poems are each described in different ways, but both with the suspicion of undeserving punishment of abuse. “The Whipping” and “My Papa’s Waltz” show immense differences...
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...My Papa’s Waltz Poetry Analysis “My Papa’s Waltz” is a light-heartedly written poem with an uneasy undertone. The poem was written by Theodore Roethke, a man who suffered depression and other mental illnesses due to his abusive father’s death. His poems reflect his mental illnesses and focus on childhood memories. This particular poem was written to bring awareness to child abuse. Roathke is able to accomplish this through the strategic use of double meanings, literary devices, and abusive diction. He channels his recollection of his father to bring the reader a chaotic, dark, and frightening scene. With the use of double meanings, Roathke is able to paint a disorganized picture, all while using words that have typically traditionally graceful...
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...A Violent Embrace “My Papa’s Waltz” by Theodore Roethke creates stark contrast using the symbolism of a waltz and gut-wrenching imagery of a child’s grasp to his abusive father to convey the conflicting emotions that victims of abuse endure. In the first stanza, Roethke clues his reader in on the hardships of the relationship when the son claims he “hung on like death [to his father]: such waltzing was not easy” (Roethke 486). Describing his hold on his father as deathly brings light to the gravity of the situation. The dance, or abusive relationship, signifies the difficulties the child is forced to endure though his deathly grasp creates an idea that the son is choosing to allow the abuse to continue. The inability for the son to untangle...
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...Such Waltzing Was Not Easy The poem “My Papa’s Waltz” by Theodore Roethke portrays a father/son relationship between the narrator and his father who died of cancer when Roethke was in high school. Most readers would presume that the little boy admired his father, despite his faulty qualities, alcohol being the most prominent one, and wrote this as a tribute to him. The first stanza provides the readers with an image of the boy being content while waltzing with his father, no matter the circumstances: The whiskey on your breath Could make a small boy dizzy; But I hung on like death: Such waltzing was not easy. The first stanza shows us that the little boy craves his father’s attention, and enjoys the time he has with him. However, as...
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...that affects many households across America today. Not only does it affect the person abusing alcohol, but it also affects the family and anyone who the alcoholic may come in contact with. A child of an alcoholic may not fully understand the degree of the problem, but they are aware of the danger that could be imposed on them. “My Papa’s Waltz”, written by Theodore Roethke, is a classic example of parental substance abuse and the effects it has on children. The speaker in this piece is the child. In the poem, there are multiple occurrences that prove the child is apprehensive with his father and his drunkenness. The father in the piece comes home intoxicated and would like to dance with his son. A Waltz dance is supposed to be a very elegant and joyous dance that joins two people together. However, this dance is far from a pleasant experience and is actually separating the...
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...In “My Papa’s Waltz”, written by Theodore Roethke, a child struggles with his father’s alcoholic nature. The first stanza remains innocent in its nature, as the child attempts to keep up with his father’s dancing and refuses to let go. Begging in the second stanza, the poem seems to take a more violent turn which is evident through Roethke’s diction. The melodic rhythm and title, “My Papa’s Waltz,” suggest a dance between father and son which could serve as both a literal dance and a dance of life. Roethke’s first stanza acknowledges the father’s drinking habits and the effects that they have on his son. Because Roethke states that “the whiskey on [the father’s] breath could make a small boy dizzy,” readers become aware of the state of drunkenness...
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...In Theodore Roethke’s “My Papa’s Waltz”, many readers will have many different interpretations of the poem. The most stereotypical are between child abuse on the author from the father and recalling a memory with his father dancing. The context of word choice Theodore Roethke used for this poem are simple but complex enough to cause different views towards the poem while also creating imagery of what can, again be, many radically different views. In a literally analysis form, Roethke uses even the smallest amount of detail such as the title and even the number of stressed words per line to emphasize the memory with his father. In “My Papa’s Waltz”, Theodore Roethke uses word choice, imagery, and certain literary forms through his work of literature to show that every good or bad memory with the family will always stay and never fade away in any way, shape, or form. One of the main things that Roethke uses in his poem “My Papa’s Waltz” is word choice. His diction throughout the poem is simple but still strong enough to cause arguments of today’s mindset in readers because the words used in the poem can...
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...Elements of sound can be described as devices that are used by poets to reinforce meaning and themes into poetry. Poets can use sound devices such as alliteration, the repetition of two or more consonant sounds in successive words in a line of a verse or prose (Kennedy and Gioia, 2052) or rime, which is when two or more words that contain identical or similar vowel sound (Kennedy and Gioia, 2074). In the two pieces “We Real Cool” by Gwendolyn Brooks and “My Papa’s Waltz” by Theodore Roethke the poets use a combination of rime, rhythm and meter to get the poem’s meaning across. The poem “We Real Cool” uses rhythm, the pattern of stresses and pauses in a poem, to get across the poet Gwendolyn Brooks’ theme. “We Real Cool” is about a group of boys that should be in school but decide to skip to go do something that is considered “cool”. Brooks uses an imitative tone while simultaneously, questioning of a group of the boys in a pool hall’s lives. Questions come up like “What are they doing here?” and “Shouldn’t they be in school?” but the bigger question is how do they feel about their lives. The poem implies the message that the boys in this pool hall are unhappy with their everyday lives, so they feel the need to pretend to be something else, something “cooler”. By using certain elements of sound Brooks shows the readers that she believes that these boys in the pool hall are trying to be something they are not. The poem also gives the reader a feeling of nostalgia. It brings the...
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...more stable life and mindset. Both My Papa’s Waltz by Theodore Roethke and Those Winter Sundays by Robert Hayden display father and son relationships. These poems have complications in the relationship between the two, but My Papa’s Waltz is a more negative complication. Those Winter Sundays shows more of a misunderstanding from the son’s point of view. Negative complications help emphasise how important a healthy relationship between a father and son is. My Papa’s Waltz shows a conflicting relationship between father and son. The boy seems to love his father. This is evidenced by the boy...
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...“My Papa’s Waltz” vs “Those Winter Sunday’s” Theodore Roethke’s “My Papa’s Waltz”, and Robert Hayden’s “Those Winter Sunday’s” are two hearts felt poems that are somewhat similar about respected fathers. In these two poems, both authors take an admiring look back at some of the most memorable actions of their fathers. It is clearly implied that their fathers were not perfect by any means, but deeply loved. The authors wanted us to see how much their fathers loved them, but by reading these poems, the love was expressed differently. Although there was unconditional love shown, I feel as if both Roethke and Hayden are expressing painful wounds and unmet needs by their fathers. In Roethke’s “My Papa’s Waltz”, he wants the readers to understand a very heart breaking and traumatic situation that he encountered with his father in his earlier stages. From reading the poem, it is obvious that his father was a habitual drunkard. The “Waltz” that is mentioned in the story, is a sentimental dance that is shared between Roethke and his father. It is stated, “The Whiskey on your breath could make a small boy dizzy; but I hung on like death.” From personal experience, the harsh smell of...
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