My Papa's Waltz By Theodore Roethke

Theodore Roethke’s poem, “My Papa’s Waltz” explores a father-child dynamic through a classic dance, the waltz. The poem includes descriptions that make the dance appear rough, sloppy, and carefree, leading the poem to be up to a reader’s interpretation. The way Roethke wrote this poem gives the impression that this is a dance that echoes the best parts of the speaker and father’s relationship, the love they have for one another. Though the poem expresses underlying issues in this relationship, at this moment, the father seems to be a hardworking man who loves his son and wants to have fun dancing after a long day. The waltz is one of the most wonderful moments in their relationship. The speaker in “My Papa’s Waltz” enjoys the dance with his

In the opening stanza of this poem, the speaker states, “The whiskey on your breath/Could make a small boy dizzy;/But I hung on like death:/Such waltzing was not easy” (1-4). Although the father’s apparent drunkenness may seem to make the dance a negative experience, the phrase “But I hung on like death” makes it seem like the boy doesn’t care and wants to spend time with his father regardless. The vivid imagery used here, which states that the strong smell of whiskey on the father’s breath can make a boy dizzy, points to the likelihood of the father being drunk. His drunken state leads to a sloppy and complicated dance, which likely relates to how their relationship is the majority of the time. The descriptions make it seem like the father is a frequent drinker, which may in turn create a tense relationship between the father and the speaker. However, though there seem to be many underlying problems in their relationship, such as the way the father physically lashes out (10), the speaker wants to cherish the time together when their relationship is good, and the dance is one of these

The speaker clinging on shows the last gasp of a positive moment in the relationship and the determination to have these good moments with the father. While some may see the finale of the poem as a power struggle in an already tense relationship, instead it can be interpreted as the speaker holding on to some semblance of a relationship between the two characters, never wanting a positive moment to be over. In conclusion, the speaker in “My Papa’s Waltz” enjoys the dance with his father, which is evident through Roethke’s use of form and imagery. Rather than the dance being a reflection of an overall positive relationship between the speaker and the father, it is instead a beautiful moment in an otherwise difficult relationship. Many moments in this poem point to a difficult relationship between the characters, such as the father’s drunkenness, the hints of physical abuse, and the roughness of the dance, however, just because their relationship may have been bad, that doesn’t mean the dance