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The Tone Of My Papa's Waltz By Theodore Roethke

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In the Poem “My Papa’s Waltz;” written by Theodore Roethke, the poem presents a somber tone through its usage of negative words and persuasive poetic craft. Throughout the poem “My Papa’s Waltz,” Theodore Roethke uses forceful words such as death, romped, unfrown, battered, and beat to provide the reader with tenderness for the character. This choice of words is used by the author likely to create the image of someone being abused and harmed. Consequently, many will argue that the story is about a son dancing with his drunken father. Some examples of this include when Roethke writes “The Whiskey on your breath.”(Roethke, n.d.,l.1). As well as when Roethke writes “such waltzing was not easy.”(Roethke, n.d.,l.4). Although this could be referred to a father and son dancing; this does not explain why the word choice is aimed towards creating a bitter …show more content…

Another reason “My Papa’s Waltz” creates a somber tone is through its usage of a persuasive poetic craft. One example of this poetic craft is through the simile “But I hung on like death.”(Roethke,n.d,l.3). This simile provides the defining point as to what the story is about. This simile can go two ways. One way it could be presented is the young boy being spun during the dance and is trying to hold on tight. On the contrary, this simile can also be taken as the young boy was staying strong through excruciating pain. Finally, the final way Roethke presents his somber tone is through a possible extended metaphor. Roethke writes “My mother’s countenance could not unfrown itself. The hand that held my wrist was battered on one knuckle; at every step you missed my right ear scraped a buckle.” (Roethke,n.d.,ll.10-16). As a result, this extended metaphor could be relating to a past event that affected Roethke in a negative way. Roethke compares the mother frowning to the main character facing

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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

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Theodore Roethke’s, “My Papa’s Waltz,” uses a great deal of imagery by using the metaphor of the word “Waltz.” A Waltz is a dance that has a step to every beat of the music, while in close proximities to the other dancer, there is not much change and it is in fact quite repetitive. Already we begin to form an image Roethke is trying to provide us by saying “My Papa’s Waltz.” His usage of the word “Papa” is quite informal compared to the word, “father.” It is only upon reading and analyzing the rest of the poem that we realize the struggle tied to the word.

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Although one may misinterpret the first paragraph, “the whiskey on your breath, could make a small boy dizzy; but I hung on like death: such waltzing was not easy” (Line 1- 4), it means that, despite the fact that the father was slightly drunk, he was capable of waltzing with his son, albeit clumsily. He was excitedly frolicking with his son and certainly not pummeling him as some readers may think. Lines in the second stanza, “we romped until the pans, slid from the kitchen shelf; my mother’s countenance, could not unfrown itself” (Line 5-8), suggests that the child was clearly enthusiastic about the waltz only to the penitence of his concerned mother. To further suggest that the poem is written as a warm nostalgic memory, the author employs a waltzing tune and

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One symbol in “My Papa’s Waltz” would be the dancing in general. We can easily see that the boy is having a hard time doing that dance. “My right ear scraped a buckle” (line 12). “You beat time on my head” (line 13). Although the dance was difficult for the boy, he still hung on to his father.

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