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Interpretation Of My Papa's Waltz By Theodore Roethke

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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 …show more content…

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

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In “My Papa’s Waltz,” poet Theodore Roethke uses sensory details and ambiguous language to persuade both the boy and the reader that the boy still loves his father, despite him being an alcoholic. On the third sentence of the first stanza, Roethke uses ambiguous language by stating: “But I hung on like death. Such waltzing was not easy.” Although this plainly means that the boy was holding onto his father without ease, it can be interpreted in another way; the boy still loves his father, even though it is hard to love him with his alcoholism at times, and the boy still loves his father very much. The boy is reflecting on this idea while waltzing with his

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“My Papa’s Waltz” is a simple and short poem that is filled with ambiguities, tensions, and metaphors, well articulated to create a unified piece of writing. The wordplay here creates a major impact to the overall theme of the poem creating a strong emotional connection to the boy 's experience. It is evident with the title which is essentially transparent. It sets the poem up for expectation before we even read the first line. This allows the author to concentrate on the rhythm of the language rather than using up precious lines to explain what 's going on.

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The first poem “My Papa’s Waltz” by Robert Hayden, has a very happy tone the first reading. However upon a second reading a sense of harshness and sorrow seem to some into play. In the first reading the thought “wow this is really cute he is dancing with his son, maybe he's a little tipsy and is having fun with his kid

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Although “Papa” may not be the most sensitive man around, but he is still to be a hero in his son's eyes. Referring from the title of “My Papa’s Waltz”, “Papa” does not seem like he’s being violent intentionally but not accidentally hurting his son. This poem also, symbolizes dance in the relationship of a father and

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Roethke’s My Papas Waltz Many literary scholars, researchers and readers in general, driven by intrigue, have tried to dissect, analyze, and interpret the ambiguous meaning of Theodore Roethke’s poem, “My Papa’s Waltz.” Their explications however, result in ambivalent, and sometimes controversial views. Some critics argue that “My Papas Waltz,” portrays the physical violence inflicted by a father to his child.

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In the poem “My Papa’s Waltz” by Theodore Roethke expressed the tone depressing yet hopeful using metaphors, similes, and imagery. In the beginning, the boy thinks the dad is a terrible alcoholic, but still loves him but hope he changes. As the poem goes on, the boy is wanting his father to tuck him in at night. The reason why the poem has the tone depressing yet hopeful is because the boy and his mother are depressed. The reason why the mother and the boy are depressed is because the father is always drunk and doesn’t care about them.

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The author in My papa Waltz, shares the rough childhood he had growing up with his alcoholic father. Their relationship isn’t a perfect one obviously so I feel as though the author uses imagery what he goes through with his father. He says things like “the whiskey on his breathe could make a small boy dizzy” as a child experiencing your parent become something different is rough. I feel, as a child seeing someone you look up to in a drunken state like that can be sort of scary especially for a kid.

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The relationship between father and son is one that is both sacred, yet complex as each side of the relationship faces hardships. This relationship between a son and his role model, a father and his child, is one, has its ups, but one must also know it has downs. In Theodore Roethke’s “My Papa’s Waltz,” Roethke’s use of ambiguity through diction allows room for the audience to interpret the text in a positive or a negative way, representing the relationship between a father and a son, which on the outside can be interpreted in an either positive or a negative way. Roethke’s use of diction creates an element of confusion for the audience of his poem.

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In “My Papa’s Waltz” the playful behavior of the father towards the speaker, presumably his son, is a deceptive and ambiguous front set up by poetic tone, poetic form, and poetic language; instead, the poem’s dark and unsettling nuances point to an abusive relationship. The tone the speaker conveys is reflective. The speaker recalls his time with his father “waltzing”, and remembers that “Such waltzing was not easy” (4). The speaker’s tone shifts to mournful for the child he once was, and is disappointed of his father’s foul actions once he epiphanized that he was abused as a child. The pleasant rhyme and rhythm of the iambic trimeter style poem makes it sound short, innocent, and sweet.

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The father/son relationship are shown in both poems. Both are adults reflecting on their past. “My Papa’s Waltz” is about how the father would dance daily with the son. Although it was painful when he sometimes missed a step and his “right ear scraped a buckle”, this was a memorable memory for the son (Line 8). The poem has a happy tone of the sons childhood days.

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Although one may misinterpret the first paragraph, “the whiskey on your breath, could make a small boy dizzy; but I hung on like death: such waltzing was not easy” (Line 1- 4), it means that, despite the fact that the father was slightly drunk, he was capable of waltzing with his son, albeit clumsily. He was excitedly frolicking with his son and certainly not pummeling him as some readers may think. Lines in the second stanza, “we romped until the pans, slid from the kitchen shelf; my mother’s countenance, could not unfrown itself” (Line 5-8), suggests that the child was clearly enthusiastic about the waltz only to the penitence of his concerned mother. To further suggest that the poem is written as a warm nostalgic memory, the author employs a waltzing tune and

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One symbol in “My Papa’s Waltz” would be the dancing in general. We can easily see that the boy is having a hard time doing that dance. “My right ear scraped a buckle” (line 12). “You beat time on my head” (line 13). Although the dance was difficult for the boy, he still hung on to his father.

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A good father is someone who makes you feel safe, someone you can count on. However, everyone has different parents. Some people have hardworking, loving fathers, and other people have alcoholic, abusive ones. In the poem, “My Papa’s Waltz”, by Theodore Roethke, the speaker, who is a young boy, waltzes through the house with his alcoholic father. The poem is ironic because the poem is very well organized and the speaker uses the word “waltz”, which should be an organized dance, but the scene in the poem is unorganized and even chaotic.

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In this poem all the son sees is battered knuckles on his father with “palms caked hard by dirt.” This paints a description of an abusive father that does not love his son because if he did love his son he would not hurt him. The father is first introduced with “whiskey on his breath” (line 1) which can be inferred that he is an alcoholic and this creates a negative image that the reader can see and even smell. The son though seems to notice all this, but still seems to love his father and admire him. The waltz represents a repetitive step and in the poem the waltz is his father’s constant abuse and interrupts the sweet idealistic dance.

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Diction has a strong affect on how readers interpret a passage. This is proven through Theodore Roethke’s poem, “My Papa’s Waltz”. The poem presents a boy roughhousing with his father. However, some critics see the roughhousing taking place as abusive, due to the negative word choice displayed throughout the poem. The author set a positive and negative tone throughout the poem, representing the respect and fear he had for his father.

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