Interpretation Of My Papa's Waltz By Theodore Roethke

Interpreting poetry is a challenging task to accomplish. If two different people were to read the same poem for the same class in the same day there will be more than one interpretation of the same poem. These interpretations are based off past experiences, academic knowledge, or a combination of the two. There is no wrong answer when trying to find a meaning of a poem. One poem that could have two very different meanings is “My Papa’s Waltz” by Theodore Roethke. An extremely common interpretation of the poem “My Papa’s Waltz” is that the father in this poem is abusive and a drunk. People make this interpretation because of some of the words used in the poem to describe the events of an evening. An example of these words is “The whiskey on your breath could make a small boy dizzy.” This shows that the father smells strongly of alcohol. An example that is used to show the abusive side is when Roethke states “You beat time on my head.” For any person who has experienced abuse these are two extremely common signs of abuse. Alcohol and roughness is usually how abuse starts. Although this

I make this interpretation based from my own childhood experiences. My grandfather would have a drink every night before he played with me and put me into bed. An example from the poem that supports this interpretation is “We romped until the pans slid from the kitchen shelf.” This is a statement about how they were playing with each other. As described the playing was rough but it was done out of love. Another example from the poem is “Then waltzed me off to bed still clinging to your shirt.” This shows that the boy did not want to stop playing. That although his father played rough with him he enjoyed the rough housing. It also shows that the young boy is clinging to his father because he does not want to stop playing to go to