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
The poem My Papa Waltz by the title sounds like it could be sweet and loving. The poem is actually very dark in my opinion. In the poem the father is drunk, stumbling and hurting the boy. Even though they could just be having a good time, running around, and the father could also be trying to teach the boy to grow up, I believe that the poem is about a boy being abused by his father. Because he also states that the father is so drunk that his breath could get a small boy drunk.
Every story consists of different elements, such as characters, plotlines, and settings. Nonetheless, many stories portray the same messages or ideas. “My Papa’s Waltz,” by Theodore Roethke, depicts a reckless father who is loved by his child, while “Those Winter Sundays,” by Robert Hayden, depicts a hardworking father whose child is indifferent to him. Though the poems depict exceptionally different childhoods, both contribute to the idea that perceptions of parents alter as one grows into adulthood. Both poems use harsh words and critical tones in order to convey this notion, however in “My Papa’s Waltz,” they signify the recklessness of the father and how the narrator perceives his father as an adult, while in “Those Winter Sundays,” they
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
In the poem “My Papa’s Waltz” by Theodore Roethke expressed the tone depressing yet hopeful using metaphors, similes, and imagery. In the beginning, the boy thinks the dad is a terrible alcoholic, but still loves him but hope he changes. As the poem goes on, the boy is wanting his father to tuck him in at night. The reason why the poem has the tone depressing yet hopeful is because the boy and his mother are depressed. The reason why the mother and the boy are depressed is because the father is always drunk and doesn’t care about them.
Specifically this poem tells of the time when the author’s father would pick him up and happily waltz around the house with him while creating a somewhat chaotic scene. From the first reading of “My Papa’s Waltz”, the piece could be simply seen as a playful and lively waltz between a father and
In the Poem “My Papa’s Waltz”, poet Theodore Roethke utilizes vivid, dark imagery to create to create a serious and sad tone that illustrates the idea that exposure to people with bad habits can influence habits of your own. In the poem a child is dancing with his father. Theodore uses imagery to make the poem sad. Lines like, “My mother’s countenance could not unfrown itself” and “At every step you missed my ear scraped a buckle” makes it look like this kid is abused and makes the tone sad.
Childhood memories linger long after one’s parents have gone and, though the memories may become clouded, the children often vividly remember the emotions that rested in their hearts. Sometimes, these emotions are negative, causing people to develop methods for dealing with them, such as attempting to see them from a positive perspective. In “My Papa’s Waltz,” the speaker recalls a childhood memory that appears positive on the surface, but literary devices such as diction and imagery reveal the negative nature of the memory. Primarily, the context of “My Papa’s Waltz” appears chipper and playful, however, through Roethke’s use of strong diction, a reader can detect the true dismal roots of the poem.
In “My Papa’s Waltz” the playful behavior of the father towards the speaker, presumably his son, is a deceptive and ambiguous front set up by poetic tone, poetic form, and poetic language; instead, the poem’s dark and unsettling nuances point to an abusive relationship. The tone the speaker conveys is reflective. The speaker recalls his time with his father “waltzing”, and remembers that “Such waltzing was not easy” (4). The speaker’s tone shifts to mournful for the child he once was, and is disappointed of his father’s foul actions once he epiphanized that he was abused as a child. The pleasant rhyme and rhythm of the iambic trimeter style poem makes it sound short, innocent, and sweet.
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.
The reason that this has negative effect on the boy is because he does not even realize that his father is not treating him right. Roethke writes, “Still clinging to your shirt” (16). This line shows that the young boy still stayed near his father even though the father was being abusive to him. This just goes to show that the persona of the poem thought that this sort of behavior was normal from a parent. “My Papa’s Waltz” highlights the ways a young person sees a parent who is stern and somewhat abusive.
Hayden, now an adult realizes how much his father actually sacrificed for him and expected nothing in return, representing the theme of growing up and memory. In the poem “Papa’s Waltz”, Roethke tells us the story of his and his father’s relationship as a child, representing the theme of father/son relationships. In the poem Roethke explains this “waltz” that his father did, in reality, it is a tantrum, in a way, that his father did every time he drank, this represents the theme of violence in the poem. Throughout the poem “Those Winter Sundays”, the author talks about what it was like on those Sundays.
Many believe it’s about a loving father who remembered a memory about him and his son. Others believe what the majority of the people believe…that is, abuse. Plath on the other hand, didn’t write her poem to be controversial. She set the theme to be about the mother’s new life. The rhythmic pattern in “My Papa’s Waltz” is three beats per line of a waltz and also includes allusions, enjambment, and similes.
Roethke’s “My Papa’s Waltz” recounts a helpless young boys memory of abuse from his drunk father. Roethke uses many literary devices to portray the various conflicts between a father and his son. The term “Waltz” is used in reference to the violence and abuse received by the son. This poem has a truly negative impact on the reader through descriptive and vivid phrases that leave the readers with a cruel and devastating image in their heads. Immediately, Roethke writes the primary two lines to the sons recollection of his fathers inebriation and the feelings that come with it.
The anonymous nature of the speaker aligns with the biblical fact that Adam and Eve have no identity outside of the sins because they have no history. The symbolism within the two stories coincide so that all can relate to such simple poem, whose basic structure aligns with the emotional capacity of humanity that began with Adam and Eve. In the poem “My Papa’s Waltz”, the daughter realizes this relationship between her and her father is one which she should not indulge in, still, she craves his love and attention. As a child, parental affection is craved even if it is dispersed in such desolate amounts that it is fantasized and dramatized into unobtainable standards given the situation at hand.
