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
Although “Papa” may not be the most sensitive man around, but he is still to be a hero in his son's eyes. Referring from the title of “My Papa’s Waltz”, “Papa” does not seem like he’s being violent intentionally but not accidentally hurting his son. This poem also, symbolizes dance in the relationship of a father and
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.
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
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.
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.
Theodore Roethke’s poem, “My Papa’s Waltz,” unfolds the seemingly frequent event of a young boy receiving a beating from his drunken father. The speaker of the poem is a young man, possibly in his early teenage years. This conclusion is based upon line 2, “Could make a small boy dizzy.” This line gives an indication that the main character of the poem has been involved in this type of tussle since he was a small child. There could also be a very strong connection between the author of the poem and the speaker.
The first person point of view in the poem is crucial in its telling because the narrator describes how she is experiencing this day. The poem has two themes, the first theme is superiority. This is shown in “it leaned
The poem really expresses how one mother values her son, and tells you how kids grow up to fast and she believes that her little boy cannot handle the challenges life throws at you. At the end of poem, the mom is surprised that her son learns to get out of the chains and get past the challenges he has been through. Families will always have a strong bond and it can never be broken, no matter what life throws at your family, you will always get though it and find new ways to make your relationship even stronger. Later in life as the kids get older, they learn that their mom will not always be there for you, so they start to get close with their mom and they realize all the wonderful things your mom did for you.
My Papa's Waltz is a well written poem that forces the reader to think hard about every individual word. Theodore Roethke has written a brain churning piece of art. The two main interpretations are both questionable but the interpretation involving abuse stands out. The large amount of negative words and phrases, the father being under the influence of alcohol, and the mother being so disapproving causes one to strongly conjecture if the poem is meant to be blithe. "Such waltzing was not easy" (4) because abuse is not something anyone should take let alone a
He also reflects on his grandmother’s wonderful stories about his grandfather. In the song, the singer’s father explains to him how it is not his fault that his grandfather does not remember him, since his grandfather has forgotten other family members as well. It is clear that the grandfather fought a hard battle and that he was a caring and respectful man. Even though the poem has a sense of tension and the song is much more tender in tone, both of these pieces give prominence to the love and admiration people have for their family, even in spite of their family’s flaws. This concept is depicted through the devices of rhyme and rhythm, symbols and metaphors, anaphora and word choices.
The speaker in the poem, or the point of view of the poem, is that of a parent. Both of these elements connect to the overall theme of the poem, which is the sacrifice and loss a parent feels in giving up a child to school. The parent must give the child over to the teacher, because the parent knows it is for the greater good of the child. “Among this teacher have a care of him/ More than his father could” (Nemerov 32-33). The teachers
[Description] The speaker 's mother is upset. [Response] "My Papa 's Waltz" by Theodore Roethke" "My mother 's countenance/ Could not unfrown itself "(ll7-8) The speaker 's mother is frowning, indicating that she 's upset, perhaps because her pots and pans are sliding from the "kitchen shelf"(ll 5-6) perhaps because her husband has been drinking. The speaker is dead, a casualty of World War II “The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner” Randall Jarrell “I woke to black flak and the nightmare fighters”(I4) “When I died they washed me out of the turret with a hose”(I5) From the title alone we know this poem takes place in World War II because that is when Ball Turret Gunners were used.
New Criticism attracts many readers to its methods by appealing to them with simple steps in order to criticize any work of literature. According to Steven Lynn it “focuses attention on the work itself, not the reader or the author or anything else” (21). It dismisses the use of all outside sources, asserting that the only way to truly analyze a poem efficiently is to focus purely on the poem. However, my New Criticism approach will include counterparts between the text and historical contexts, such as the author’s life. For this I chose to analyze the poem “My Papa’s Waltz” by Theodore Roethke.
The poem is mainly about a child who loved his father’s hat since he could smell the presence and feel his presence around him. He would
