Literary Analysis Of My Papa's Waltz By Theodore Roethke

The poem “My Papa’s Waltz” by Theodore Roethke can be interpreted in several different ways. Every person reads it differently, some believe that it is about a father abusing his son and others believe it is just a playful scenario between a father and son. After reading it a couple times over I started to realize each part of the poem could be thought out in different ways. I take the position that the poem is about a playful scenario between a father and son, along with abuse. Not child abuse

Analysis of “My Papa’s Waltz” “My Papa’s Waltz” is a poem by Theodore Roethke in which a young boy describes the actions of his father under the influence of alcohol. Like most children, the young boy has a naïve mind that observes his father's abuse differently. To the child, it is all a graceful waltz, but he is covering the truth with a happy illusion. This might come from the fact that he is a child and does not know enough or he knows too much and has to numb the pain. In “My Papa’s Waltz”

seldom joyful or enthusiastic; take, for instance, the works of Sylvia Plath and Theodore Roethke, who use different literary devices to describe their abnormal relationship with their fathers in their respective poems, “Daddy” and “My Papa’s Waltz.” Plath relies on metaphors, conceit, diction, and tone to convey her thoughts, whilst Roethke makes use of similes, diction, and poem structure. Both authors use different literary devices to describe their unusual relationships with their fathers; however

|[pic] |Syllabus | | |College of Humanities | | |ENG/125 Version 3 | |