My Papa's Waltz By Theodore Roethke

An Explication Essay of "My Papa's Waltz" Poem Theodore Roethke poem, “My Papa’s Waltz,” portrays the fateful memories of the child who is dancing around the kitchen with his/her drunken father, “The whiskey on your breath / such waltzing was not easy” (1-4). However, the dance seems to be very violent to the point of causing destruction in the kitchen as the Roethke indicates, “We romped until the pans / Slid from the kitchen shelf” (5-6). The poem illustrates the hard experience the child was going through although he or she loves his father too much as Roethke wrote, “But I hung on like death / such waltzing was not easy” (3-4). The speaker noted that the dancing of the drunkard man with the child was not pleasing to the mother at all, “

In “My Papa’s Waltz,” Theodore Roethke illustrates an image of a father-son romp around the kitchen that is both harsh in its play and delicate in its memory. Roethke illustrates the poem’s images from his own childhood memories. Roethke uses simple words to create puzzling phrases that could be interpreted in different ways. The poem is ambiguous due to certain word choices that have baffling double meanings. Roethke’s poem paints an image of his childhood interactions with his father. Roethke paints this picture by using ambiguity within a waltz-like structure.

Theodore Roethke’s poem “My Papa’s Waltz” illustrates a nightly ritual between a working-class father and his young son. In the first stanza a young boy holds tightly to his father. The second stanza describes a playful roughhousing between father and son. The fourth stanza shows again the boy’s unwillingness to let go of his father. Roethke’s AB rhyming scheme and waltz-like meter set a light and joyful cadence. The music of the waltz comes through in the reading and with it a carefree and innocent tone for the telling of the short amount of time between a hard-working father arriving home and the time when his son must go to bed.

“My Papa’s Waltz” by Theodore Roethke, and “Those Winter Sundays” by Robert Hayden are the poems that talk about the relation between son and father. Both speakers in the poem are grown men and reflect memories of the day they spend with their father when they were in childhood. About the poem “My Papa’s Waltz,” Baird states that “Theodore Roethke imaginatively re-creates a childhood encounter with his father, but also begins to attempt to understand the meaning of the relationship between them”( Baird). Another poem “Those Winter Sunday”, Peck states that “the poem provides its power, for the poem’s meaning depends upon the differences between what the boy knew then and what the man knows now” (Peck). Both themes, which is the poem written about fathers, are similar to each other; however, there are some significant difference in the structure of the poem, and the feeling toward fathers from sons.

As the poem progresses, the boy’s tone becomes more playful which reinforces the serious statement about how much he cares for his father. The ‘waltz’ becomes less serious when he says, “We romped until the pans Slid from the kitchen shelf” (Roethke, 5). Using a word like romped is a deliberate attempt to make a serious event lighthearted and fun. The only reason a child would make this ‘waltz’ playful is because he wants to protect his father, whom he loves. As the last stanza explains, “You beat time on my head…Then waltzed me off to bed Still clinging to your shirt.” (Roethke, 13-16) Again, the abuse is compared to a waltz which makes it seem lighthearted. The boy is taking a serious affair and making it into a fun event. He uses this good-natured tone because he loves his father and wants to justify this serious affair.

Theodore Roethke portrays the father figure as a working class man he does so by his description of him and thus his choice of words. For example, line 9 and 10, says that the father's hand was battered or even more so in line 14, the description of his palm is caked hard by dirt. The

Roethke, Theodore, “My Papa’s Waltz”. The Norton Introduction to Literature. Kelly J. Mays. Shorter Eleventh Edition. New York, NY, W.W. Norton and Company. 2013. Pages 791-792

By stating that the young boy can smell the whiskey on his father’s breath helps the reader understand that the father has been drinking. Roethke also helps portray the theme of abuse by saying “You beat time on my head” (13) and describes the father’s knuckles as bruised. From that you can infer that the father is abusing his child physically. When Roethke says the father “beats time” he is also hinting that this abuse is consistent by comparing the violence to a steady consistent rhythm. He also uses words such as “battered”, “scraped” and “romped”. The words “battered” and “scraped” suggest that the father is handling his child roughly. The word “romped” indicated the sense of fun yet is out of control because the pans fell from the shelf. The father is handling his child without care and is just throwing him around and abusing him in any way he wants

However, parts of this poem show the fear the son has for his father. "We romped until the pans slid from the kitchen shelf" describes that they are having fun as they romped around the house even though they are being wreck less. Roethke describes the caring nature of his father for his son when he said, "The hand that held my wrist”. The holding hand symbolizes the close relationship that they had. This contrasts with the beginning of the poems first lines; "[t]he wiskey on your breath could make a small boy dizzy.” This gives an impression of a father being drunk who has the ability to hurt the child. This ingrains the fear into the child.

Every one of us has a childhood, some of us may experience a memorable one, while some of us want to erase it from our memory. Everyone also has their own personal feelings towards a father's figure due to their personal experiences they have as a child. The poems "My Father's Song," by Simon J. Ortiz, and "My Papa's Waltz," by Theodore Roethke, are two similar poems written about a father and child relationship. My Papa's Waltz" creates a debate whether the father-son relationship is sweet loving memory or a confession of childhood abuse. The two poems are spoken from the child's point of view during a memorable event in their childhood. The poems "My Father's Song and "My Papa's Waltz" both share a theme of admiration each kid has looking upon their father and a warm memory. The writers use a variety of poetic devices such as tone, word choice, imagery, and figurative language.

In “My Papa’s Waltz” Theodore Roethke describes an episode in his childhood where his drunken father returns from home, with the smell of whisky, and begins to dance with him. He illustrates how his father’s hands are “battered on one knuckle” (Roethke, 10) and each step caused his right ear to scrape a buckle, along with how the mother’s expression reveals a frown. This continued until he was waltzed to bed, left clingy to his father’s shirt, his love is not necessarily expressed through a gentle caress. Roethke’s father is most likely a hard worker and comes home late because of the need to provide for his family. While in “Those Winter Sundays,” Robert Hayden describes how on Sunday mornings, his father rises early, puts on his clothes while the room is still dark, and then goes out into the cold to split firewood to use in order to warm the house. Once the entire house is filled with warmth,

With one dance, one move, or one twirl a memory can be imprinted in the mind thus forever shaping a relationship between son and father. The dancing described in the poem “My Papas Waltz” written by Theodore Roethke and in the song “Dance with my Father” co-written by Luther Vandross and Richard Marx are both based on inspirational experiences from their childhoods. The experiences connect the sons and fathers long after their childhoods end. In both the poem and song, we see the role that spirited dancing plays in the parent child relationship. The playful dancing before bedtime creates a bond between son and father that inspires both works. The two fathers enjoy the dancing with their sons. The mothers, however, have different views of the bedtime rituals. One mother joyfully embraces the father and son time while the other views the dancing in a less positive light.

The word that is key to the poem is romp. Roethke states that "we romped until the pans / slid from the kitchen shelf" (5-6). The word is usually associated with

The controversial 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 reminisce on a bittersweet memory with his father. His unclear commemoration has sparked a divide on what the true purpose of the poem is. Some may argue the poem’s purpose is to shine light on the subject of abuse, whereas others believe the father and son were sharing a moment while “roughly playing.” However, the more one examines this piece of literature, it becomes undeniable that the poem portrays a scene of a toxic father-son relationship. Although there are a

In the poem My Papa’s Waltz by Theodore Roethke, he looks back in his memory as a child and explains the love he has for his father despite all the flaws his father holds. Roethke describes his emotions through this poem by using diction, imagery, and the use of tone.