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Literary Techniques In The Poem My Papa's Waltz

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The waltz, a smooth controlled dance is used to summarize a rocky, unstable relationship with and abusive father in the poem My Papa’s Waltz. A small boy is dazed by the whirlwind of the evenings with a father controlled by whiskey. The author shares his experiences as a child in this poem.
The poem starts off by talking about the scent of a large amount of Whiskey on the father’s breath. The poem says “Could make a small boy dizzy” (line 2). This shows that the father had more than a small swig, but in fact so much that the small boy is woozy because of the strong aroma. Also, people get dizzy after spinning and moving fast and chaotically. You are unable to think or focus. Dizzy shows how he feels when around his father, like everything is chaotic, spinning, and unclear. Also, the poem refers to the boy “hanging on like death”, (line 3) the author uses this haunting word not only to show a strong feeling, but also a haunting memory. When we hear the word “death” we get an eerie, haunting, creepy feeling. These feelings could describe how the small boy feels when around his dad.
As the poem continues on, the rough relationship moves in to the …show more content…

This explains the image of the father’s hand with a torn or bruised knuckle. Many may assume that this is from work or farming, but if the father is an alcoholic then careless drunkenness could have caused the battered hand. Also, the poem countiues to keep up the metaphor of waltzing. The authors says “every step I missed my right ear scraped a buckle” (line 11-12). This seems that the young son might scraped the father’s belt buckle while teaching him the waltz. Although, the waltz is a very controlled and slow dance, if the father is drunk he will not be controlled enough to dance these precise steps. This stumbling may have caused the young boy to become off beat and slid into the father’s rough

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The imagery of “My Papas Waltz” can clearly be understood as a father waltzing with his son in the kitchen, tapping the beat too his son’s head, and his ear scraping his buckle against his child’s ear. The poem is playful when the poem says, “At every step you missed/ My right ear scraped a buckle” (Roethke lines 11-12).

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It reads as follows, “the hand that held my wrist was battered on one knuckle;” (9-10) again, we see the choice of words. Roethke did not use the words “calloused hands, rough hands,” He chose “battered.” As in, this was not the first time the father had struck his son. Upon the ending of stanza four, we come across these lines, “at every step you missed, my right ear scraped a buckle.” (11-12)

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