My Papa's Waltz by Theodore Roethke

The poem “My Papa’s Waltz” by Theodore Roethke is the story of a boy who is taken to bed by his drunk father “The whiskey on your breath” (1), the boy has a rough trip to his bed, his father stumbles around the kitchen and knocks down a few pans, which upsets her mother “Could not unfrown itself”(8). When the kid finally arrives to his bed he does not want to let go of his dad “Then waltzed me off to bed”, “Still clinging to your shirt” (15-16), I believe because he wants to avoid any confrontation between his parents. My perception did change from the beginning to the end, when I read the title I thought the author was referring to the dance but as I read more and more it was clear that I was a metaphor. I think the effect is that a kid’s

The speaker pinpoints in the first stanza that the waltz “was not easy,” and he “hung on like death,” making the reader question if this is actually a waltz he is describing (Roethke lines 3-4). The waltz is definitely not easy, however dances are supposed to be fun and this small boy is not having fun waltzing with his father. The language Roethke uses to describe the waltz and how he “hung on like death” suggests that the speaker is hanging on to his father because he does not want to let him go no matter what he is doing to him (Roethke line 3). The speaker states that he and his father “romped until the pans/ Slid from the kitchen shelf” suggesting that the speaker does not simply knock over pans awkwardly, but they romp “until” the pans fall from the kitchen shelf (Roethke lines 5-6). He implies that it is almost intention that the romping will not be over until the pans fall. The speaker also states that “the hand that held [his] wrist/ Was battered in

Theo starts off the poem by describing how much whiskey is on his fathers breathe. Theodore uses the line “Could make a small boy dizzy” (Roethke 2) to show the amount that his father has drank. Considering the condition the father is in, the little boy still holds on by fear, but “Such waltzing was not easy”

The poem My Papa’s Waltz by Theodore Roethke is about a small child having fun with his drunk father by waltzing. The poem is written in the perspective of a small child because in the beginning stanza says “ The whiskey on your breath can make a small boy dizzy.” The theme of this poem iis happy . It is clear this is the theme of this poem because this poem has happy moments . The tone of the poem is Hopeful because while the father and son were dancing the mother was frowning. It is clear this is the tone because in the poem it says. “ ”. The phrase that gives the tone because . The tone is also conveyed by the word “ Then waltzed me off to bed still clinging on to your shirt.” The tone is also conveyed by the phrase a happy time

Theodore Roethke, the American poet who wrote many poems based on his past childhood events. For some short time he surrounded himself around his father, until he suddenly passed away. After the death, Roethke suffered many manic episodes of depression, anger and excitement. His poems also portray this sense of mania by alternating between happiness, fear and love. Roethke’s use of rhythm, rhyme and diction impact the theme of his poem: “My Papa’s Waltz”.

In “My Papa’s waltz” by Theodore Roethke, the narrator illustrates a horrendous situation in where a child is being beaten, as something blissful and joyful, through a metaphor involved with dancing called the waltz. The narrator goes around the house joyful dancing, setting the mood for relaxation and bliss but describes each step of the waltz violently, hence “pans” falling from the kitchen shelfs. The line speaking about “every step you missed” refers to all the mistakes the father made in raising the child. Every mistake the father made had a negative impact on the child, “beating time on his head.” The poem is made up of four quatrains, with each one escalating the experience, step by step, that the narrator had to go through until he

“My Papa’s Waltz” is a lyric poem that expresses a young boy’s admiration and love for his father. This can be seen through the author’s word choices. Roethke’s usage of playful rimes such as dizzy and easy or buckle and knuckle depict a joyful and comical nature. Words such as romped (line 5) and waltzed (line 15) also add to the informal colloquial language of the

In the poem "My Papa's Waltz" by Theodore Roethke, the meaning of the piece varies on the readers` perspective. Some think that this is one of happy memories between a son and father. Others think that the waltz covers up the truth of child cruelty. In my opinion, the symbolism and the imagery in My Papas Waltz gave me the automatic thought of the abusive relationship between the father and son. But after investigating the poem I could begin to see the positive side.

The father had been drinking whiskey and he is so drunk that just the smell of his breath was able to make his son feel a bit woozy. The son is telling his father that his drinking is a problem. The family is torn apart by alcohol and abuse. The waltz represents the father chasing the boy around the kitchen trying to catch him in a fit of drunken anger. When this poem was written it was seen as not being the woman's place to step in when it came to discipline and even today, it's not uncommon to see one parent willingly or unwillingly stand by while the abuse goes on. The line that says, you beat time on my head, is the actual act of the physical abuse. Abuse is reasonably interpret, because the son said that his father had held his wrist. The grabbing of a wrist suggests to me a harsher interaction between to two. I think that if the father was not trying to hurt the boy, it would have been more logical that he would hold the boys’ hand and not his wrist. The boy also stated that his father seemed to brush him with a buckle. This could be a description of a time when the father was drunk and went to strike his son using a belt and missed his backside and hit his ear. This poem seems to take a darker turn as the boy describes the waltz as, not easy. I found that the waltz gets so rough that the pans are

"My Papa's Waltz" is the pensive recollection of a boy's nightly waltz around the house in the arms of his father. Roethke's poem gives a voice to the often silent internal

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.

Theodore Roetheke uses connotation throughout the poem, “My Papa’s Waltz” to evoke a negative feeling and make us feel sorry for the boy because of how confused he is by the situation he is in. Theodore Roetheke says in his poem, “The whiskey on your breath could make a small boy dizzy, but i hung on like death.” By putting these words in the text, Theodore indicates that the kid is confused with the fact that his dad is a drunkard

In “My Papa’s Waltz” by Theodore Roethke, the writer reflects on his childhood experience with his father through a memory of dancing a waltz. Roethke describes the dance with details that hint at physical force coming from a possibly drunk dad. The reader is left to construe whether the relationship is simply a carefree love or if it has a darker meaning, possible parental abuse. Roethke uses particular structure, language, and characterization to develop an somewhat ambiguous relationship that the reader is left to interpret.

Theodore Roethke in his poem “My Papa’s Waltz” tries to describe the relationship between the parents and children.The relationship that is portrayed in this poem is especially between a father and a son.Through imagery, this poem gives the impression of hardship as well as love between a son and his father. Imagery usage in poetry as a literary device is used to create vivid details dealing with one’s sense of sight, taste, smell touch and sound. Theodore Roethke imagery in his poem “My Papa’s Waltz” conveys a boy’s emotion as together with his father experiences late night dance. The poet uses imagery to show the exploitative relationship that exists between the boy and his father. Every stanza in this poem presents the relationship that existed between the poet and his father.

My Papa’s Waltz, written by Theodore Roethke, is a poem about a child and his father. Theodore’s poems are greatly influenced by his father’s life and his childhood experiences with him. His father died of cancer and his uncle committed suicide when he was only thirteen. Theodore was born in Saginaw, Michigan, where most of his poems take place in his father’s greenhouse. He attended the University of Michigan, Harvard, and taught at other universities. Later he started his poetry residency at University of Washington in 1948. He won several prizes for many of his poems and books. In My Papa’s Waltz, Theodore Roethke writes about his father’s illness and one of his most memorable last moments with him.