Comparing 'Sonnet 130 And My Papa's Waltz'

Theodore Roethke was born in Saginaw, Michigan in 1908 he was only fourteen years old when he lost his father due to cancer. He idolized him following him everywhere and anywhere, because he was his hero. Roethke spent a lot of his younger days working in a greenhouse with his father they practically lived there considering all the hours they spent together there. “My Papa’s Waltz” is just one of the many poems that the greenhouse is reflected in his writing. From the beginning of this poem in the first two lines presented in the introduction Roethke leaves us with the connotation of his father has been drinking whiskey and it has not been light drinking. He has drank so much that it has stained his breath to the point where it could make a young boy dizzy as it does with his son. By saying his son hangs on to him like death shows us that he has become dizzy by his breath and using the word death shows it is not one of the better memories he has in the vault of their relationship.

Throughout this poem we see that the father coming home drunk from the bar has happened more than once. Some could say that it happens almost every night. Roethke writes “The whiskey on your breathe/could make a small

Roethke strategically made his poem into a four part stanza with great patterns and flow. Roethke used words like “breath and death”, “shirt and dirt”, “knuckle and buckle”, and “shelf and itself” to produce a rhythm. The flow of the poem may even seem slow but still very catchy. The author was able to create a four part stanza poem that was catchy but also told the audience a story. The audience could take this poem two different ways. One way could be that the son was being physically abused by his father or another way could be that the son was desperately clinging onto his father’s affection even if his father was under the influence of alcohol. The author did all this just by using flow and

Theodore Roethke’s poem, “My Papa’s Waltz” spurs passionate academic debates among professors, scholars, and students; the imagery, context, and diction of the poem clearly supports the interpretation that Roethke writes “My Papa’s Waltz” reflecting on his relationship with his father. A relationship in which, notably, causes harm to the author. However, through all the nights Roethke spent in pain and in horror, his love for his father still exists. While many people believe that the author tells a lovely story of a fond memory with his father, it is not possible that the use of negative imagery and negative diction does not play a role in the story told. “My Papa’s Waltz” tells the story of a “small boy” who is abused by his father.

Using these words exploit a tender possessiveness. Moving on into the rest of the poem, we see how Roethke’s play on words establish a lively, spirited scene.

Even though his father has many defects he still loves him unconditionally. The author allows us to see how the speaker feels through imagery. In the first four lines of the poem, “The whiskey on your breath Could make a little boy dizzy; But I hung on like death: Such waltzing was not easy” we see how a child is exposed to alcohol which in some people’s minds can be violent because alcohol is a prohibited beverage for children under twenty-one years of age. The choice of words in this poem show how the speaker is feeling and his emotions at the moment.

I take the position that the poem is about a playful scenario between a father and son, along with abuse. Not child abuse but the abuse of alcohol by the father. The first line of the poem is “ The whiskey on your breath could make a small boy dizzy”, from this line we can infer that the child knows how whiskey smells. We get the idea that the child is very young, so for him to recognize the smell of whisky could mean that he has smelt it on his father's breath before. A situation like this could have happened before, meaning that often his father comes home drunk. Drunk enough to make his son dizzy from the smell on his breath. Even though he is drunk the child is holding onto him like death. This tells us that the child does not get to see him as much as he would like and even though he is drunk it will not stop him from spending time with him. So, when his father comes home from work he will go through anything to spend time and be with him. The last line “Such waltzing was not easy”, what looks like a happy moment, we see that it is kind of tricky for the son to hold on to his drunken father. Regardless of his breath and no matter how hard it is to told on to him, he does not let go. We assume that the child is too young to know what being drunk is. He may not suspect anything from his father like that. He could be use to his father always coming home like this, which is why he is hanging on to him like death.

Although Roethke’s use of diction may fuel both arguments, It cannot reveal his intentions behind the poem alone. He uses imagery to his advantage of this mind game by plugging in words throughout the poem which captivate the reader and force them to form a mental image; he does illustrates in “My Papa’s Waltz” by stating “The whiskey on your breath could make a small boy dizzy.” This statement reveals how drunk the father is which sets interpretation for the rest of the poem. Since drinking is one cause of abuse, numerous amounts of people may see the rest of the poem as the father abusing his child. On the contrast, Others can view whiskey as an expensive drink only used to celebrate special occasions in the time

Roethke’s use of diction throughout the entire poem helps the reader understand the meaning in the poem. He uses a great amount of negative connotation in his poem that at first glance strikes the reader as being about abuse. Words such as “whiskey,” “dizzy,” “romped,” “scraped,” and “beat” radiate negatively. However the word “romped” actually means “to play energetically,” or “to engage in sexual activity” after looking up the definition the reader will most likely assume it would be “to play energetically” this is because of the following lines “The pans slid from the kitchen shelf.” However the words that follow are “My mother’s countenance/ could not unfrown itself” these startling words help reveal the idea that they couldn’t have been playing energetically because why would a mother be frowning at the fact that a son and his father are playing around? Additionally, in lines 9 and 10 “The hand that held my wrist/ Was battered on one knuckle” those profound lines highlight the idea that they weren’t dancing or playing around because why would the father have his hand in such tight grasp around the child’s wrist? Ultimately, Roethke used such negative connotation to illuminate the idea of his father abusing him.

When one thoroughly analyzes the context of the poem, the purpose of the poem becomes quite clear. At first glance, one interprets “My Papa’s Waltz” as an abusive relationship between Roethke and his father. However, upon further investigation, readers are able to see the fondness within the poem. When researching about Roethke’s childhood, his father passed away when he was a young child, so this poem is reflecting the “romping” and dancing that occurred when his father was still alive. Additionally, his father worked at a greenhouse, which would explain his “battered knuckle” and “palm caked hard by dirt.” The newfound information allows readers to create connections between his childhood and the poem. Naturally, when readers see the words “battered,” “beat,” and “scraped,” they assume a violent tone, but words like “romped” and “clinging” apply a playful and nostalgic tone. Such diction can create negative connotations, but with context individuals are able to discover the positive meaning behind the words.

Although, the poem has brought up many controversial ideas to the readers, it is best to analyze the true context of the poem. Roethke uses negative diction in the poem to trick the readers into thinking it is a negative and dark poem, no one truly knows the real context of the poem; whether you believe the poem is about abuse or an author writing about the nostalgic memories he made with his father, it all leads to the point how you truly feel about it.

The boy says that the “waltzing was not easy,” which could refer to dancing with his drunk dad or that the father harming the child and that the son is linking it to a dance instead of a beating (Roethke 552). It is because of this that Roethke’s poem could mean that his father and he are dancing or that the boy is getting hit. It is because of this widely interpretable part of the poem that there are three different ideas on what the poem actually means. The first one is that the child look to his father with fear and joy. The other two sides are a like in the fact that they think that the poems intensity. One of them thinks that the poem has a more joyful mood because their personal experience when their father became drunk and loved them instead of hurting them (Fong 79-80). On the flip side of the coin, people think that the poems tone is more fearful because in the beginning they hear that the fathers been drinking and is now scaring the mother and the son instead of being a happy story (Fong 80). Bobby Fong thinks that “the poem is like a seesaw… hard, dirt, clinging),”(80). This shows that he thinks that the story has both fearful parts and joyful parts. However, in Hayden’s “The Whipping” there isn’t as much room for interpretation because it basically describes clearly an adolescent getting whipped publicly.

Roethke’s use of imagery helps the readers develop the image of the positive memory he shared with his father. The author describes “pans sliding from the kitchen shelf” which indicates the younger author and his father are dancing in the kitchen accidentally knocking objects over. In fact, the line before that line uses the word “romped” which means roughhousing. Individuals can infer that the author and his father are either practicing for a dance coming up or they are just having a father-son moment. In stanza three he states, “at every step you missed my right ear scraped a buckle” which describes the younger author getting a cut on his ear from the belt of his father. Although this sounds kind of harsh, the young author is still small and probably dancing on his father’s feet while his father is holding his hands; for this reason, the small child gets scraped with his father’s belt buckle. On the whole, imagery in Roethke’s poem gives the readers a better understanding on what his fond memory with his father was about.

Theodore Roethke wrote a poem called My Papa’s Waltz regarding his father when he will come home with whiskey on his breath. This poem’s mood is a little playful but with sadness. The poet by using the word “waltz” could be speaking about that he enjoyed playing with his father or he could be speaking about how his father will be intoxicated and mistreated him. Roethke tells how he dislike his father’s breath of alcohol. According to Roethke, “The whiskey on your breath / Could make a small boy dizzy; / But I hung on like death” (1-3). The impact in his poem is of fear and possible mistreatment. The author simile/metaphor is using the word waltz as a means of saying his father probably was unbalanced because he was intoxicated, but he also used the word beat perhaps to indicate that he was mistreated. This poem has appeal because the author combined opposite words, waltz and beat, to portrait a metaphor.

Shakespeare’s “Sonnet 116” is critically acclaimed to be one of the most famous poems in English Literature. The poet’s diligent work in tone, word choices and figurative languages along with the many musical aspect of poetry, contributes to making the sonnet a masterful craft. It has been widely researched for years in order to get in depth of what the writer is trying to say. In my essay I will depict the many poetic techniques applied in writing the sonnet and the affect of them on the overarching meaning of the sonnet. The sonnet written in the traditional iambic pentameter, focuses on the concept of “Love” and more specifically the strength and purity of the ideal love everyone strives for. The poet conceptualizes and then describes the power of love through various metaphors and poetic conceits. The poet claims that it is universally true that the power of love is everlasting. To the poet, love in the total marriage between two minds not just a ceremony for two persons to physically engage or to pass on their bloodline. The love of the mind is the compatibility, understanding and selfless feeling between two people and it is less superficial. He believes that “altering love” is not love, rather true love never changes. In the sonnet we also see the concept of time faced with love. The poet reveals that love withstands the challenge of time, even if the beauty fades and hardship comes in a relationship to break the bond. Shakespeare mention, just like the north star, the love and affection between two people never changes. Shakespeare firmly believes in his argument and challenges the readers to analyze his words and to find flaws in his writing. He concludes the sonnet by saying if his argument doesn’t hold, then all of his poems are wrong and all the love in the world are of lies and of deceptions. By creating parallels between positive and negative tone, Shakespeare is able create imagery in the sonnet and convey the overarching theme of the what it means to be in love.