Still in the Gilded Age

There are many things in life that appear attractive on the outside, but turn out to be quite the opposite on the inside. The forgotten fruit that was left to rot on the kitchen counter, the empty promises of a government body, the two-faced colleague at work… there are many of examples of beauty being only skin deep. Theodore Roethke’s “My Papa’s Waltz” and Emily Dickinson’s “I’m Nobody! Who are you?” explores this theme of the gilded side of humanity. Roethke opens “My Papa’s Waltz” through the eyes of a small boy, lending an initial tone of naivety and innocence. This mood is reinforced through his use of rhyme scheme, which adds to the childish effect. However, this feeling is quickly subverted, as a more sinister interpretation can be seen midway through the poem. The boy describes, “The hand that held my wrist/Was battered on one knuckle;/At every step you missed/My right ear scraped a buckle.” (9-13), leading the reader to question what the actual meaning behind this “waltz” is. The minor mentioning of the unhappy mother, as well as the phrase, “But I hung on like death:” (3) is suddenly relevant; it suggests that the father may be an abusive alcoholic, deviating from the prior assumption that he was simply a happy drunk spending time with his son. This shift in reader interpretation can also be attributed to Roethke’s unique word choice. Take for example the word “waltz,” which is used exclusively in the beginning and ending stanzas of the poem. A waltz is often linked with tranquility and lightheartedness, viewed by many as a wholesome sort of dance. Roethke plays off of this initial association by implementing words with negative connotations, such as “battered,” “scraped,” and “beat.” These words sharply contrast with the audience’s expectations of a waltz, thus forcing them to reevaluate the story behind the poem. Roethke completes the shift by reintroducing the word waltz in the second to last line, reminding the audience of the change in meaning. This sudden change in tone, as well as the subtle way that it is presented, makes the reader realize that turmoil is not always immediately evident. In that, Roethke’s message is quite simple; don’t judge things at face value, as the problems almost always lie deeper. In parallel to Roethke’s poem, Dickinson also utilizes a child-like persona to set the tone of “I’m Nobody! Who are you?”. The first two lines, “I'm Nobody! Who are you?/ Are you--nobody--too?” (1-2) use a similar kiddish dialogue seen in “My Papa’s Waltz,” to create a disarming effect, as well as adopting its own version of a rhyme scheme. While not as direct as “My Papa’s Waltz,” Dickinson still twists her initially child-like presentation into something else entirely. This can be seen when the speaker says, “Then there's a pair of us?/Don't tell! they'd advertise--you know!” (3-4). The statement implies that the speaker feels persecuted, and that he doesn’t want to associate with the people who aren’t “nobodies.” This is further reinforced by the next line, “How dreary—to be—Somebody!” (5). Through extrapolation, the reader can guess that these “Somebodies” are important, powerful people, and that the speaker is tired of them, as they are his natural oppressors as a “nobody.” Just like “My Papa’s Waltz”, Dickinson’s poem makes use of contrasting impressions in order to get her message across. Dickinson also uses symbolic word choice to illustrate the poem’s deeper meaning. One such example can be found in the sixth line, “How public—like a Frog—” (6). She is comparing the Somebodies to that of a frog, which is commonly seen as a rather loud creature. Thus the Somebodies can also be assumed as being loud, a trait that might have led to the Nobody’s alienation. Another special not is that the word “Frog” is capitalized, possibly meaning that she is referring to a specific event or person. This is further supported when you link it together with the descriptor “public” which was stated right before “Frog.” I believe that this is Dickinson’s way of using symbolism to convey her hidden message; she sees the public world as being overly loud and fake. The vociferous Somebodies act merry and without care, using the misleading noise as a mask to hide their problems underneath. Ultimately, the poem is Dickinson commenting that she would rather be unknown (a Nobody) and be true to herself then be publicly known (a Somebody) and be forced to hide her problems under a gilded mask. In “An essay on “My Papa's Waltz,”” Marisa Anne Pagnattaro suggests that the poem is describing a fond memory of horseplay between the child and his father. To support her reasoning, she notes certain informalities present in story that detract from the negative wording seen in the poem. One such example is when she comments that, “The use of the formal term “mother” stands in sharp contrast to the much more familiar term “Papa.”” (par. 5), attributing the difference to a sense of closeness with the father. She also focuses on the waltz-like rhythm of the wording, “The poem begins with a strong first beat, followed by two lighter beats, with the second of these being an upbeat “pushing” into the new first beat. More simply stated, the rhythm is a repetition of : ONE two three ONE two three. By using the waltz steps, Roethke gives his readers a feel for the movement of the dance. There are, however, a few “missteps” in the form of an extra syllable for emphasis… These rhythmic disturbances provide readers with a palpable sense of the clumsiness of the actual dance.” (par. 3) With this, Pagnattaro explains that Roethke was attempting to solidify the lightheartedness of the dance into the reader, and uses this viewpoint to defend her stance of the waltz’s apparent innocence. While this is an interesting point, positive words like “Papa” and “waltz” are ultimately overshadowed by the constant use of negatives around them. The frequency of clashing word choices is clearly deliberate, set up by Roethke to invoke doubt in the supposed well-natured event. Furthermore, the assumption that the break in the poem’s “waltz-like rhythm” is intentional is in itself groundless, as the “breaks” vary and follow no set pattern other than being different. The scheme she offers as a proof is shaky at best. Pagnattaro’s adamant concentration on the few positives distracts her from the overwhelming amount of negatives seen in the poem. In contrast to Pagnattaro, Bobby Fong’s “Roethke's 'My Papa's Waltz.” supports the idea of Roethke's poem having a deeper, darker meaning. Fong focuses on the conflicting word choice of “My Papa’s Waltz,” commenting that, “The poem is like a seesaw, where the elements of joy (the figure of the waltz, the playful rhymes, the rhythm), are balances against the elements of fear (predominantly the effects of diction such as whiskey, dizzy, death, unfrown, battered, knuckle, scraped, buckle, beat, hard, dirts, clinging).” (par. 7) Like Pagnattaro, he also chose to concentrate on the mother, but for a different reason. Here he brings insight into the reader’s unique perspective, likening it to that of the mother, who watches disapprovingly, but ultimately can’t intervene. Fong's comparison of the poem to a see-saw is somewhat accurate, if you see the opposing sides as the positive and negative word choices and tones. However, I would argue that the poem is more lopsided on the negative side then it is balanced. The comparison of the reader to the boy's mother is also a unique aspect of Fong's essay. If one extrapolates, it is not a stretch to imagine the mother as being an avatar for the reader. However, lack of supporting evidence leaves this idea as mere conjecture. While insightful, some of Fong’s arguments leaned too heavily on possibilities and lacked the proper evidence to back them up. Like the previous author, Ronald R. Janssen’s “Roethke's MY PAPA'S WALTZ.” describes a darker interpretation of Rothke’s waltz. But unlike Fong’s essay, Janssen claims that the poem’s tension becomes clear to the audience from the very beginning, “We are then plunged into a comic and tragic tension… where we are confronted with the grim vision of the helpless boy at the mercy of his father and at the same time we must absorb the rather hilarious image of a drunken man trying to step formally through the paces of a waltz…” (par. 2). Janssen also notes the alternating word tones throughout the speech, suggesting that they have a large hand in guiding the reader to Roethke’s message. In particular, he points out the word “waltz” as having several different meanings by the poem’s end; “By the end of the poem, the word “waltz” has taken on several other tones and associations… the phrase “waltzed me off to bed” in the last stanza picks up the colloquial usage of “waltz” to mean something like “sashay” (itself derived from dance terminology) or “run along.”” (par. 3) Another interesting point that he makes is in his conclusion of the poem, where he connects the word “waltz” to that of life and death. Janssen explains, “…the idea of the waltz raises the image of the dance of death, the dance of life, and we are led to think not only of the succession of daily experiences but also the succession of generations as a kind of pattern as the younger generation moves into the older.” (par. 5) Janssen views the dance as being a gruesome depiction of the circle of life. Janssen provides a solid argument, but I have to disagree with his assertions on the poem’s initial mood. The title of the poem itself does not alert the reader to possible tragedy; if anything, it does the opposite. Furthermore, the only early clue to the poem’s deeper story, “But I hung on like death;” (3), can be very easily overlooked as a metaphorical descriptor for how the boy clung to the father. Therefore, I feel that the grimmer aspect of the Roethke’s work does not become clear to the average reader until the latter half of the poem. Janssen’s linkage of the waltz and the circle of life is not directly disputable, as it is a theory based off of a decent amount of evidence. However, this was surmised from an interpretation that I believe was fundamentally wrong. So while I could see where Janssen was coming from, I could not reach the same conclusion that he proposed. According to George Monteiro in “Dickinson’s I’m Nobody! Who Are You?” the theme behind the poem is the fear of having an identity. Monteiro claims that “…the poem is about the private poet's constant plight, her fear that her name will be bruited about and her poems dispersed among strangers, and that the poet that she is will become the subject of a distasteful notoriety.” (par. 1) He focuses on the frog as his main point of evidence, suggesting that it is symbolic of the “self advertising poet.” He likens the representation of a vociferous poet to the frog because, as Dickinson depicted earlier, the one that calls attention to himself is likely to be seen as pompous and egotistical in the public eye. He concludes that this is a story of a poetical paradox; A poet must be noticed to get their messages across, yet must make strives to not be noticed so as to avoid public disenchantment. Monteiro’s findings are intriguing in that he interpreted the poem as one that targeted poets exclusively. However, what he failed to take into account was the vagueness of Dickinson’s word choice. The fact that her representations are labeled under the broad terms “Somebodies” and “Nobodies” suggests that she intended the message to resonate with all people, not solely poets. While Dickinson’s poem does focus on a personal grappling with anonymity, its purpose is to comment on society as a whole, not a specific group. In "I'm Nobody! Who are you?': horror through anonymity in American Psycho.", Alison M. Kelly presents yet a different viewpoint on the Dickinson’s poem. Like Monteiro, she believes Dickinson’s “Nobody” represents a poet’s anonymity. Kelly theorizes that the confidence that this Nobody gives to the other is symbolic of the poet’s outcry for recognition; “…[he] demonstrates the paradox that Emily Dickinson's poem addresses: He enjoys his anonymity and fitting in… but at the same time, he desperately wants to be noticed.” (par.11) Kelly’s argument is very similar to Monteiro’s; she also believes the poem is about a poet’s choice between anonymity and notoriety. I once again respond that Dickinson’s word choice makes it clear that her message was intended for a much larger audience. Kelly also postulates that the speaker confiding in the other Nobody is symbolic of a person’s longing to be recognized by others, thus creating a contradiction to their wanted anonymity. Since our interpretations are fundamentally different, I instead see the trust between the two Nobodies as a way to show that they, unlike the Somebodies, are not hiding behind veiled words and are instead speaking frankly to one another. Mark Twain famously coined the late 19th century as “The Guilded Age”, referring to the superficiality of the nation’s economic stability. It was an era that choose to disregard and gloss over its interior flaws, concentrating only on offering a positive exterior. These same points were relayed through “My Papa’s Waltz” and “I’m Nobody! Who are you?”. Not judging at face value and a general disenchantment with the constant concealment of society’s problems… both mirror the situation of the late 19th century. Through its use of literature, these two simple poems present us with a rather difficult question; have we actually changed since that time? Or are we giving our old problems a new gilded paint job?

Fong, Bobby. "Roethke's 'My Papa's Waltz." College Literature 17.1 (1990): 79-82. Rpt. in Poetry for Students. Ed. Marie Rose Napierkowski. Vol. 3. Detroit: Gale, 1998. Literature Resource Center. Web. 3 Nov. 2011.
Janssen, Ronald R. “Roethke's MY PAPA'S WALTZ.” Explicator (2011) Academic Search Complete. Web. 3 Nov. 2011.
Kelly, Alison M. "I'm Nobody! Who are you?': horror through anonymity in American Psycho." Journal of Evolutionary Psychology (2002): 28+. Literature Resource Center. Web. 3 Nov. 2011.
Monteiro, George. “Dickinson’s I’m Nobody! Who Are You?” Explicator (2011) Academic Search Complete. Web. 3 Nov. 2011.
Pagnattaro, Marisa Anne. "An essay on “My Papa's Waltz”." Poetry for Students. Detroit: Gale. Literature Resource Center. Web. 3 Nov. 2011.