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My Papa's Waltz Poem Analysis

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The Waltz of Love and Fear The speaker in Theodore Roethke poem, “My Papa's Waltz”, is a young boy who illustrates how his father waltz him to bed. This poem gives many different meaning that the reader can grasp, but ultimately the imagery, word choice, and tone shows how a horrific beating is told in a lovely manner. This description is not always true, but it is one of the major themes that most readers often assimilate when analyzing the poem. In the poem, imagery creates a variety of link between the boy and his father relationship. From the first stanza, one could assume that the father has a drinking issue, but the young boy is unbothered by it or not affect. “The whiskey on your breath/ Could make a small boy dizzy”(1-2). This shows the father drinking issue. Additionally, Roethke follow with, “But I hung on like death/ Such waltz was not easy”(3-4). This displays how the boy, even though he had a drunken father, still cared for him. Roethke gives a sense of love for the reader to relate to and creates a emotional image. Following to the third stanza, Roethke creates the image of the father as a …show more content…

Likewise, we can assume other reasons or meanings due to the language Roethke has used. “Romped” means to play childish, but instead of using “play”, “romped” gives a happier, more enlightened meaning. Not only this, yet the mother's “countenance” facial expression was “unfrown”. This mean the mother was constantly frowning. This word choice connects and allows the audience to create a perspective of how the family lifestyle was. Both of these words exhibits how Roethke wanted the audience to perceive this poem. The mother was constantly frowning perhaps due to her being frightened of the drunken father. One can perceive how the father might have a abusive relationship, yet even this does not affect the boy’s love towards the

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I believe Roethke decided to use the title “My Papa’s Waltz” instead of “My Father’s Waltz” because the poem is about a memory from his childhood. The simile “hung on like death” gives us a good idea of how hard the speaker tries to keep his balance while “waltzing” with his father (lines 3-4). The facial expression of the speaker’s mother “could not unfrown itself” (8). The speaker’s mother appears to be annoyed because he and his father are making a mess in the kitchen.

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1443 Words | 6 Pages

Nothing brings a reader to such an abrupt halt as do lines 20 and 21 of stanza 3. The narrator states that the male character “was [her] uncle, the one who lived in the half-finished basement, and he took [her] by the hair”. This statement brings the entire poem into perspective- the narrator’s want for constant company, her willingness to go with a man she had only just met, and even her very blatantly obvious jealousy towards her so-called “best friend” mentioned in stanza 1. The abuse of a family member who a child is supposed to trust and put their full faith in,

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536 Words | 3 Pages

The subject of “My Papa’s Waltz” poem by Theodore Roethke has spurred passionate academic debate from professors, scholars, and students alike, the imagery, syntax, and diction of the poem clearly support the interpretation that Roethke writes “My Papa’s Waltz ” to describe the fond relationship with his father as a child. It has been argued that If he was being abused that he would have run away when he had the chance, rather, he didn’t want to let go of his father because they both were having fun. The son’s mother was growing due to motherly instinct out of her son’s safety of how crazy they were walzting, but made no attempts at the son and father’s intervention because it wasn’t necessary to interrupt them. Ultimately to describe

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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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465 Words | 2 Pages

I wrote this poem attempting to emulate the style of Theodore Roethke, specifically his poem “My Papa’s Waltz”. The inspiration of this poem was a camping trip and a hike me and my friends went on a couple of years ago. I used Roethke’s ABAB rhyme scheme and attempted to keep a similar meter. I also used the same style of syntax seen in “My Papa’s Waltz”, by using two lines of a stanza as one sentence. I attempted to convey the sense of wonder and nature I felt while on the trip, and I think this is best captured in the first stanza.

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650 Words | 3 Pages

The mother has nothing but a “countenance” expression to the actions the father is doing to his child. It can show that the narrator didn’t know anything better but to love. Although the poem may sound simple and easy to understand, My Papa’s Waltz is really a complex story

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764 Words | 4 Pages

In the final analysis, most readers of this poem tend to deduce a dark theme of physical violence due to its tone, word choice and imagery. Nonetherless, Roethke balances positive and negative tones of the poem to give it a rich and ambiguous quality. The exceeding tendency to paint the picture of child abuse deprives it, of this quality. “My Papa’s Waltz,” illustrates a special and powerful moment, shared between a father and a son through a waltz.

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872 Words | 4 Pages

I think that Roethke and Haden are regretting that they couldn’t express their feeling to their beloved fathers. They didn’t have strong bonding with their fathers like we have now. Both of the poets are capable of writing great poems

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902 Words | 4 Pages

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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846 Words | 4 Pages

Meanwhile, Roethke’s “My Papa’s Waltz” the speaker implies abuse through a metaphor about dancing, where, in lines 5, 6, and 11- 13 the speaker vaguely mentions abuse, saying “We romped until the pans/ slid from the kitchen shelf”, “at every step you missed/ my right ear scraped a buckle./ you beat time on my head.” These lines imply the father is abusive, boisterously beating the child in the kitchen so much so that pans fell, without actually saying so. In both poems, the speaker experiences abuse from the father figure in their

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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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1237 Words | 5 Pages

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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588 Words | 3 Pages

In the poem, My Papa’s Waltz, the speaker, Theodore Roethke, writes about a father and son waltzing. Further investigation suggests there is more going on than a waltz. The poet utilizes figure of speech and a negative toned vocabulary throughout the poem. Thus, alleviating the reader of the harsh truth of an abusive relationship whilst never dehumanizing the father.

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664 Words | 3 Pages

In the poem, “My Papa’s Waltz”, Theodore Roethke illustrates the complex relationship between a little boy and his father by juxtaposing images of love and violence through word choices that portray feelings of fear yet affection for his father. Roethke’s shifting tone encompasses distress and a sense admiration that suggests the complexities of violence both physically and emotionally for the undercurrents of his father and son relationship. The poem begins with a series of negative images, each of which are considered violent and undesirable in a family. For example, “The whiskey on your breath” suggests alcoholism, and “Could make a small boy dizzy” emphasizes that a boy is suffering from the effects of the alcoholic parent.

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531 Words | 3 Pages

The boy’s mother had a face that “could not unfrown itself” meaning that she was an unhappy wife in a brutal marriage. Mothers are known to be the nice, soft, and loving person in the family. In this poem a mother seems to be the opposite. She is standing in the kitchen watching defensively as her husband is beating her only son. This sets a picture in your mind that the father and son “waltz” is not a pleasant one at

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