Theodore Roethke Essays

In The Waking, poet Theodore Roethke suggests the value of taking life slowly, trusting one’s intuition, and learning by doing. It reflects on the unknowability of the future as well as the beauty of feeling and intuition. The Waking is an enigmatic villanelle written in 1953, a year after the author got married. In it, the poet puts forward various ideas about life and how to live it, all within the traditional rhyming and iambic pentameter form. Theodore Roethke's poetry is known for its exploration

the subject of the poem “My Papa’s Waltz” by Theodore Roethke has spurred passionate academic debate from professors, scholars, and students alike, the imagery, syntax, and diction of the poem clearly support the interpretation that Roethke writes “My Papa’s Waltz” to show him reminiscing on his relationship and many memories, good and bad with his father from when he was a child. Imagery is used to represent the joyful or even unsure times that Roethke and his father experienced. His father arrives

¨My Papa's Waltz¨ by Theodore Roethke is a poem about a mother and a ¨small boy¨ who are abused by an aggressive father. In fact, Roethke uses a great amount of descriptive language to make us feel this way about the poem. For example, on line 5 and 6 ¨[w]e romped until the pans slid from the kitchen shelf ¨ gives us a negative picture in our minds of someone being brutally abused. Perhaps, the author writes this poem for the reason of him suffering with depression and mental illness. The author

A Darker Side of Theodore Roethke’s “My Papa’s Waltz” At first read, a happy and joyful experience between a father and son may be what one takes away from “My Papa’s Waltz,” but a darker meaning of Theodore Roethke’s poem may rise to the surface after deeper study. Buried in-between the lines of Theodore Roethke’s poem “My Papa’s Waltz,” many different interpretations can be taken from this interaction between the father and son, and the “waltz” these two share. The negative interpretation, arguably

While the subject of “My Papa’s Waltz” by Theodore Roethke has spurred passionate academic debate from professors, scholars, and students alike, the imagery, background, and diction of the poem clearly support the interpretation that Roethke writes “My Papa’s Waltz” to reminisce upon a nostalgic memory from childhood of dancing or “waltzing” with his father. Many individuals believe that the poem is about an abusive relationship between the author and his father. Although this may seem true through

“My Papas Waltz” by Theodore Roethke grew up in Saginaw, Michigan, a place that influences his work long after. Roethke’s father died of cancer when he was only fifteen and not long after the traumatic event he struggles with depression and mental illness. Roethke’s writing referred to his childhood as we see in this poem, his father. This can be interpreted in multiple ways. The poem could be interpreted as a parent abusing his child due to alcoholism or a child dancing with his father. This remind

Waltz” by Theodore Roethke has spurred passionate academic debate from professors, scholars, and students alike, the imagery, syntax, and diction of the poem clearly support the interpretation that Roethke writes “My Papa’s Waltz” to reminisce on a fond recollection of dancing and spending time with his father as a young boy. Roethke’s use of phrasing and diction allows for the reader to interpret contrasting meanings and storylines. On one hand people view the poem as a playful memory of Roethke and his

"My Papa 's Waltz" by Theodore Roethke is an interesting poem that begins with complexity. Theodore Roethke implicates the aspects of his childhood experience in this poem. This poem is immersed in metaphors, symbolism, and imagery that can overwhelm the readers with vagueness and doubts. Upon this poem 's interpretation, some people consider this poem as a parental abuse and some people see it as a son 's cheerful memory of an evening dancing with his father. The metaphors, symbols, and tone of

(My Papa’s Waltz) Response The warm feeling of love and affection from a parent is supposed to be a cheerful experience, but in Theodore Roethke poem, love is battling fear. The narrator of this poem portrays over compassion from a drunken father who engages in a bizarre waltz, with his fearful child. The controversy of this abnormal experience from a father to his child is describes on the endurance of the child throughout the poem of painful dancing that ended with mix emotion. The allegory in

positive, negative, or a combination of both and result in a lifelong full of happiness or a lifelong of hope, despair, and regret. Theodore Roethke’s “My Papa’s Waltz” gives a great example of a grown man remembering both positive and negative childhood memories in his life. The poem is written from the child’s point of view and has an acquiescent tone. Throughout the poem Roethke discusses the child’s negative but positive memories of growing up with his father through the use of the boy’s acquiescent

meaning of Theodore Roethke’s poem, “My Papa’s Waltz.” Their explications however, result in ambivalent, and sometimes controversial views. Some critics argue that “My Papas Waltz,” portrays the physical violence inflicted by a father to his child. In a rejoinder, an equal number posit that, the poem vividly depicts a complex, but a loving relationship between a father and his son, through the child’s voice. The poem is considered to be an ode, to Theodore Roethke’s own father, Otto Roethke, whom he

Nostalgic Remembrance While the subject of “My Papa’s Waltz” by Theodore Roethke has spurred passionate academic debate from professors, scholars, and students alike, the imagery, syntax, and diction of the poem clearly support the interpretation that Roethke writes “My Papa’s Waltz” to recreate a fond memory from his childhood. Some may think the poem is about physical abuse while others believe Roethke is reminiscing on his past time with his father. It is understandable that without context

Father and Child and relationships can be difficult. Some better than others and some worse. In the poem “My Papa's Waltz” by Theodore Roethke the way I interpret the peom is an abusive husband who is never home and when he is he is intoxication. Starting from the first “The whiskey on your breath could make a small boy dizzy” to me means the father just came home from drinking and knocking the kid out dizzy. The next line continuing the same thought as the previous line “But I hung on like death”

It is clear from the beginning of “My Papa’s Waltz” by Theodore Roethke that the author intended for the poem to give a negative connotation to the reader. The poem not only involved a seemingly alcoholic father, but also a small boy whose experience was shaped by his father’s actions. The scene depicted is negative because of the way he is swung, hit on the head, and scraped by a belt buckle. The father, unaware of how rough he handles his son, swings his child around like he is on a merry-go-round

The subject of “My Papa’s Waltz” poem by Theodore Roethke has spurred passionate academic debate from professors, scholars, and students alike, the imagery, syntax, and diction of the poem clearly support the interpretation that Roethke writes “My Papa’s Waltz ” to describe the fond relationship with his father as a child. It has been argued that If he was being abused that he would have run away when he had the chance, rather, he didn’t want to let go of his father because they both were having

society. “My Papa’s Waltz” by Theodore Roethke explains his life when he was still a child back in the 1900s. Theodore Roethke was born on May 25, 1908 and lived until August 1, 1963. He had an abusive father growing up and the poem gives the reader a taste of what he had to go through, in the form of waltzing. Roethke uses literary devices, such as metaphor, imagery, and rhyme to allure the reader into his poem. One literary device Roethke uses is metaphor. Roethke continuously states that he is

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 area that portrays deep, personal, and heart wrenching writing. "Dolor" written by Theodore Roethke expresses his feeling of misery and uselessness. Theodore Roethke states, "I have known the inexorable sadness of pencils, / Neat in their boxes, dolor of pad and paper-weight, / All the misery of manila folders and mucilage" (Roethke lines 1-3). These three lines can be interpreted as Roethke feeling alone and useless. He is stating that he is capable of relating to the sad pencils

the reader. In the poem "Dolor," Theodore Roethke is able to capture the sorrow and repetitiveness of office life by speaking about boring and everyday objects, and making them seem important, powerful, and even lethal. In the first eight lines of the poem, Roethke uses personification to infer the weight of the office supplies to be overwhelming, and suffocating. "The sadness of pencils," the "misery of manila," the "dolor of pad and paper-weight," (Roethke lines 1-3) these are all examples

My Papa’s Waltz: by Theodore Roethke The poetic piece of “My Papa’s Waltz” written by Theodore Roethke is a traumatic tale that approaches a psychoanalytic approach to a young boy’s relationship towards his Father. Although the poem itself is only sixteen lines, it is one of Roethke’s most moving and most frequently anthologized or recognized poems [1]. The story has been read as a very warm memory, but easily shifts itself into a perplexed darker narrative that deals with assumptions