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The Waltz Theodore Roethke Analysis

752 Words4 Pages

Theodore Roethke introduces us to a domestic scene that takes place in a kitchen. The speaker is engaging in a waltz with his father, and Roethke supplies the story of the relationship between an alcoholic father, and a naïve son through stanzas that align with the rhythm of a waltz. Through the imagery depicted through analyzing the poem, we can understand briefly what the speaker remembers and feels about this dance.
The speaker of this poem speaks about his father in a saddened way. Introducing the poem in these two lines: The whiskey on your breath/…make a small boy dizzy” (1-2). According to this, we can understand that the boy was used to this familiar smell, and recognized later in life what it was. Therefore if the smell on his breath …show more content…

The boy notices as he waltzes around with his father that his mothers “countenance/ Could not unfrown itself” (7-8). Countenance is defined as a person’s facial expression. The boy is aware that his mother is unhappy and rather disappointed. His mother’s expression is mentioned because even though he is dancing with his father, he doesn’t want to make his mother upset even more. It’s evident that if the mother has a look of disapproval, she has witnessed the father’s behavior many times. Presumably if the mother were unaware of the father’s behavior, she would enjoy this moment between the two, as they waltz. While trying to enjoy this tattered waltz the speaker can only notice his mother's expression but is unable to stop, and his father continues swaying him …show more content…

The word “romped” illustrates the carelessness the father has to how he dances with the boy. They make their way through the house, the boy hanging onto the father as he falls and stumbles everywhere. It can be visualized how carelessly the father is dancing as the speaker shares that “ the hand that held my wrist/ Was battered on one knuckle.” Battered being used to describe just how rough the father is slamming into things. Unintentionally the boy could be insinuating something else as well: the father’s knuckles and the mother’s emotion towards the incident as a whole could be that the father is not the nicest alcoholic. At the same time, the father isn’t a well-behaved alcoholic, as he stumbles with his son knocking over pans in the kitchen. So arguably the knuckles could consequently just be from the walls, and the mother is just disgusted at his choice to remain falling into his drunken

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