My Papa's Waltz And Daddy Comparison

Roethke’s “My Papa’s Waltz” and Plath’s “Daddy” both deal with what might be called “daddy problems”. While Roethke’s poem clearly has a father there, the abuse is only alluded to. On the other hand, Plath’s poem alludes to the father, while the signs of abuse can be found more easily. These two poems demonstrate how abuse and betrayal effects a person for life. Though the two poems are similar thematically, they are very different structurally. For Roethke’s “My Papa’s Waltz” it is clear that the boy is actually dancing with his father, making the title completely understandable, which is not always the case. Structurally, the poem is fairly simple and consistent. The lines are written in iambic trimeter, giving it a very steady feeling.

It is written in free style, so there is no real structure or rhyme scheme. This lack of structure manages to make this odd poem even more chaotic because you never know what the next line, or stanza, will bring, either in structure or in meaning. One device that this poem does invoke is the repetition of certain sounds, specifically the “oo” sound. The first two lines alone, “You do not do, you do not do anymore black shoe,” (705) show this device magnificently. In just those lines the “oo” sound is repeated seven times, and while that doesn’t stand true for every set of two lines, that specific sound is used exponentially more often than any other sound within the poem. The poem “My Papa’s Waltz” could be taken as just a boy dancing with his father who may be a little drunk. To me though, this is not the case, but rather it is a coated view of child abuse. The line “My mother’s countenance could not unfrown itself.” is one that is very interesting. (552) To me, this line is the mother being worried about what is going to happen to her son. She has seen the abuse previously, and is hoping, for her son’s sake, that this time the father simply puts him to