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My Papa Waltz Literary Devices

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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. In line three stanza one, the intoxicated father dances with his son which becomes highly uncomfortable. Mainly due to the fact that he his drunk and that are being having getting beat and abused by papa waltz I can understand his
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1559 Words | 7 Pages

Chiu Ching 3U (8) My Papa’s Waltz Questions 1. Comment on the simile in the first stanza. (3 marks) The simile used in the first stanza is “I hung on like death”(3). The next line, “Such waltzing was not easy”(4) suggests that the father and son’s boisterous, wild “romping”(5) around was difficult for the child, and he had to hang on tightly because the father was romping around drunkenly and did not hold onto him well.

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119 Words | 1 Pages

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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1047 Words | 5 Pages

However, the speaker hears the father’s singing as “a children’s song,” which are often characterized as simple-minded (9). Since the line “my shoulder against his” demonstrates the speaker to be the same height as the father and therefore also an adult, the speaker could initially consider his father’s straight-forward attempt at a connection to be either too simple for what attention he should be given now that he is grown-up (11). The speaker believes the father should have tried for this connection when he was still a child rather than “now” (8). These negative attitudes at the beginning of the stanza, allows the speaker to create a shift for the audience with the next phrase, “I lean into him” (9). The audience sees the speaker ignoring his gut, giving into his want to form a relation with his father.

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475 Words | 2 Pages

The poem My Papa Waltz by the title sounds like it could be sweet and loving. The poem is actually very dark in my opinion. In the poem the father is drunk, stumbling and hurting the boy. Even though they could just be having a good time, running around, and the father could also be trying to teach the boy to grow up, I believe that the poem is about a boy being abused by his father. Because he also states that the father is so drunk that his breath could get a small boy drunk.

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657 Words | 3 Pages

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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563 Words | 3 Pages

A father and son romping around in the kitchen as the mother is looking. While others may view this poem as a family torn by a father's misfortunes. In line 1, the word “Whiskey” gives some characteristics of the fathers crooked ways. Continuing on, the signs of foul play and roughness with his hands, "battered on one knuckle", and "a palm caked hard by dirt".(11-14) More so, some of “Papa” few escapes most likely consist of a drink when he gets home from a rough day. Concluding, “Papa”makes his own family feel very uncomfortable around him.

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764 Words | 4 Pages

That moment, of engaging directly with the family’s figure of authority – his breath redolent of whisky, can be both frightening and exciting for a

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296 Words | 2 Pages

In the Poem “My Papa’s Waltz”, poet Theodore Roethke utilizes vivid, dark imagery to create to create a serious and sad tone that illustrates the idea that exposure to people with bad habits can influence habits of your own. In the poem a child is dancing with his father. Theodore uses imagery to make the poem sad. Lines like, “My mother’s countenance could not unfrown itself” and “At every step you missed my ear scraped a buckle” makes it look like this kid is abused and makes the tone sad.

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902 Words | 4 Pages

Another example of this, in the last stanza, lines 15-16, is made as Roethke notes “[t]hen waltzed me off to bed/[s]till clinging to your shirt.” The last lines of the poem show the true relationship at the end of all the confusion lost in the midst of the middle of the poem. The father loves his son and waltzes him to bed and the boy, loving his father, slings to his shirt to stay with him. The poem expresses the confusion and complexity created in a relationship such as this one between father and son, but at the end, the confusion is unnecessary and what prevails is not the negatives, but instead the positive aspect of

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596 Words | 3 Pages

My papa’s waltz his/her dad was drunk while his son/daughter trying to teach waltz and in Grape sherbet his/her dad made recipe of swirled snow. “But I hung on like death/ Such waltzing was not easy” (line 3 and 4). “Dad appears with his

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871 Words | 4 Pages

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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578 Words | 3 Pages

Waltzing Through the Pain Imagine growing up in a house where your father was drunk and your mother would keep quiet, all you have to hold on to are the good memories. This is what it was like for the little boy growing up in the poem “My Papa’s Waltz” by Theodore Roethke. The young boy loved his father dearly even though he would get beat by his drunk father. When his father died things changed, all he has left is the good memories. The boy struggles to cope with his father's passing, the boy is having a negative experience.

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898 Words | 4 Pages

The first two lines of the poem paint a picture that play to our sense of smell, “The whiskey on your breath. Could make a small boy dizzy.” (1-2) His father is obviously inebriated past

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527 Words | 3 Pages

The song reflects on the events that occur during a child’s experience with alcohol abuse in a parent, it offers descriptive details of the incidents and the backlashes that follow with it. It tells a story of how a child is stuck within a hospital with his or her parent with an addiction. The narrator then goes on to describe the scene with multiple senses, and expresses the dreadfulness of the repetition he/she experiences in the ICU. The song offers no resolution and simply states that there’s constant relapses that they can’t help. The theme is abuse and emotional damage inflicted.

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757 Words | 4 Pages

(QUOTE) American actress Paget Brewster once said, “Oh, my dating skills are the worst. No, I pick the wrong men; it 's amazing. I am awful, the worst dater.” Some people are bad at picking relationships, like Paget Brewster, while some relationships are bad, or not worth the effort.

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