My Papa's Waltz By Theodore Roethke

“My Papa’s Waltz” Message of Abuse

The conflicting interpretations of Theodore Roethke's "My Papa's Waltz," explores whether the poem speaks on a scene of abuse or a loving memory between a father and son. Based on the reader this poem can be seen as a little boy reliving a good childhood memory or painfully revisiting an act of abuse. The reader's perspective greatly influences how the poem is perceived, as it can evoke varying emotions and reactions. However, when looking deep into the poem, “My Papa’s Waltz” reveals a man speaking on the abuse, father’s alcoholism, and the childhood trauma he survived when he was a child.

The poem shows a scene of abuse not a loving memory. As a child the abuse can be seen as a form of love because that’s

Instead of using words like caressed or grazed, the author used “battered” and “scarped” to gives the readers a sensation of his pain. The author not only represents the abuse through his diction, but with the point of view as well. Roethke writes the poem in the perspective of his child self instead of his adult self because, “Roethke wants the reader to identify with the child, not the adults in the poem, so he not only writes the poem from the viewpoint of a child but also uses the short lines common in poetry written for children.” (Baird). As a reader, identifying with the child allows for sympathy and even curiosity of the poems true meaning. The poems perspective for what is happening to the child is seen as serious abuse because, the way society is today more compassion is given to women and children who encounter abuse. Roethke’s title

When reading the poem, readers have the freedom to interpret it either positively or negatively, just as trauma can be viewed from different perspectives. In order to protect oneself, children will bury memories and, “The idea that memories can be repressed can be traced to Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis. Freud believed that certain uncomfortable urges or painful experiences could be locked away from the conscious mind, to protect a person from further suffering” (Hamzelou). Roethke had a rough childhood growing up at the hands of his alcoholic father and the poem can be seen as his way of expressing his repressed memories. The poem is not direct on the authors feelings because he himself is confused. He does not quite understand his childhood and chooses to write the poem as such to depict how traumatic times in one’s childhood can appear differently later in life. “My Papa’s Waltz” is told in the point of view of a child, but written by the author grown up himself, which is why he writes “At the end of the dance, he is still ‘clinging’ to his father’s shirt, not embracing his father’s body with warmth. From the child’s perspective, the ‘waltz’ has been something to endure, not to enjoy” (Baird). As an adult he is able to understand the trauma he went through as a child and uses the words of “clinging” to emphasize how he felt like he had to survive his father and never had