My Papa's Waltz by Theodore Roethke Essay examples

Before we can be able to successfully compare these two poems, we must first be able to completely understand each of the texts on their own. We will start off with Roethke’s “My Papa’s Waltz”. In this poem, there is a young boy who claims to be doing a “waltz” with his father, however it is a little more aggressive than that.  Although, despite the aggressiveness displayed by the father, the reader can sense that the boy does not look at this experience as a

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.

My Papa’s Waltz is a poem written by Theodore Roethke, published in his collection of poems in 1942. It captures the complex relationship the speaker has with his father. The speaker describes his relationship with his father as difficult and frightening using symbolism, tone, and word choice. The poem reveals that the speaker is afraid of his father although he still loves him. In this essay, I will explain how Roethke portrays their relationship with the aforementioned literary terms.

In the fourth and last stanza Roethke re-emphasizes his father as a laborer by once again describing his hands. These are the hands of a man who works in the dirt. A reference made to the father as he “…beat time…” (13) on the boys head, once again portrays the raucous way in which they are dancing; the father keeps time for their waltz while playfully drumming the beat on his child’s head.

"We romped until the pans / Slid from the kitchen shelf" (5-6). In numerous poems different readers vista a variety of ways to interpret what poems actually mean. This is very much true in Theodore Roethke's poem "My Papa's Waltz." The quote mentioned has caused many misconceptions about what the poem; "My Papa's Waltz" actually refers to. The two superior interpretations of critics are that Roethke's poem describes abuse or a dance. The abuse seems much more apparent in "My Papa's Waltz" because of the language that Roethke uses. The dance is interpreted because the boy is innocent and knows nothing else therefore the abuse seems normal. The drunkenness of his Papa, the mother's

“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” Theodore Roethke uses dramatic irony, understatement, and hyperbole in order to express the idea that in order to numb the pain, one covers it with a happy illusion.

Throughout the text there seem to have a particular roughness to the actions, for instance, the pans sliding off the shelf, the mother's countenance, which would not unfrown it self and the father's whiskey breath are all image that represents the hardships of life, for example, the father drink after a long hard day of manual labor. Although these images can be seen has child abuse if you take them out of the poems context. The child abuse angle is more evident in line 13 where the father beats time on the child's head because of the connotation to abuse the word "beat" involves. Due to the simple middle class language of the text, the phrase beat time is common use for counting time, thus the social context is important for the comprehension of this poem.

“My Papa’s Waltz” is one poem written by Theodore Roethke. Roethke’s style is unique, because he uses situational irony. This is a simple poem, created with four stanzas of four lines each, called quatrains. “My Papa’s Waltz” is the interpretation of an adult’s emotions. Roethke describe the relationship with his father. This poem is a monologue where the persona is an adult telling about himself and a particular situation by looking back at his childhood. The poem describes a typical moment in a family life, where the father has been drinking whiskey, the little boy seems afraid and the mother appears to be unhappy. Through this pome the persona who is now an adult expresses emotions of fear and love. Recalling the past Roethke tells how his alcoholic papa hold him and make a danger waltz. In “My Papa’s Waltz”, Roethke uses imaginary and metaphors to reveal his theme.

In the poem, “My Papa’s Waltz,” by Theodore Roethke, the narrator is the “small boy” mentioned in the second line. He thoroughly describes every little thing about what his father is doing; this shows the large amount of imagery in the poem. This connection is obviously between a boy and his father; hence the title of the poem. Speaking of the title of the poem, it is exactly what is named. A waltz is a song “written in ¾ time,” this is normally a very “intimate type of dance” (Shmoop). There may be a danced being performed, but do not be fooled. Eventually, we realize that this poem is a lot worse that what most would originally think. This poem quickly goes from good

As well, the waltz in the story becomes a symbol of an idealized and elusive relationship between father and son and leads to the title of the poem-"My Papa's Waltz." The last line of poem, "waltzed me off to bed still clinging to your shirt" (line 15-16) infers the boy is very dependent on his father and shows his father loves him very much. The constant rhythm throughout the poem gives it a light beat, like a waltz; the reader feels like he is dancing. The rhythm of poem make a reader feel the joy of a child, not the somber sense of abuse, This is like a child dancing since there is no complicated structure, Moreover, stresses on words such as dizzy, easy, buckle, and knuckle give the poem a rather playful feel to the reader. A child who suffered abuse would not be using happy symbolism to remember his

In fact some believe that the “Waltz dance” reflect a happy and joyful memories in the eyes of the child. According to McKenna John on his “Revisions and the Tone of “My Papa’s Waltz,” Theodor had a problem choosing the title “Roethke struggled with two choices: "Waltz/Dance" and Papa/Father.” I believe that if Theodor had chosen “My Father Dance” as a title, it would have created more confusion to the reader. The meaning of the word “Dance” is very broad and it doesn’t elicit any specific picture in the readers’ minds. On the other hand, the word “waltz” clearly illustrates a picture of a specific dance which performed by two people in a close position wrapping arms around each other. Considering the size of the boy, it was quite hard for him to perform the dance with his father. Apparently, the father was forcing his son to dance with him which had put lot of pressure on the little boy. The main reason why Theodore choses to title his poem “My papa’s waltz” instead of “My papa’s dance” is because he felt that any other dance would have been easier for him to perform than the waltz. Yet the waltz dance remains as a central symbol of the poem which reveals some crucial details that are beyond the dance.

In the last two stanza's, Roethke describes the vivid details of the beating. He describes how one hand clinches the boy's wrist. Clinch seems to be a rather strong word and it indicates a use of forceful grabbing. If this were a happy dance, the author would not use such a strong description. Lines 11-12 shows how the father tries to hit the son but due to his intoxication he misses and grazes the son's ear with the belt buckle. The fourth and final stanza sums up the feelings of the boy towards the father. The words seem to be directly spoken to the dad. This is not the first time this type of action has taken place. The reader gets this interpretation because the boy says," you beat time on my head"

The main form of syntax that Roethke uses is rhyme scheme. “My Papa’s Waltz” contains a simple ABAB rhyme scheme, in which many slant rhymes are used; further, this makes the poem sound similar to the way a song would. Notably, waltzes are guided dances… just as the father in “My Papa’s Waltz,” guided his son through life. Yet, it is also important to note that waltzes are meant to be simple, swift, and loving. Although waltzes are described as these things, Roethke’s childhood is described as a waltz gone wrong. He makes it obvious he faces abuse and the effects of alcoholism in his early life. As stated, the rhyme scheme used by Roethke helps develop the true main idea of this poem by shaping it as it were a song, more specifically a waltz. If the poem, “My Papa’s Waltz,” was a song, it would be a pessimistic and depressing one. Clearly, Roethke’s unfortunate experiences portrayed by using syntax make us one step closer to discovery the real purpose of the poem. In short, the syntax of this story shapes its meaning through rhyme scheme.

Another abusive incident which appeals to the sense of touch occurs in the fourth stanza. The father "beat time on [the son's] head" with a "palm caked hand of dirt" (13-14). These lines create a picture of the father as a working man who takes aggression out on his son. Appealing to the sense of touch better illustrates the physical pain the son endures. The sense of touch used in the third and fourth stanza's help to prove that the poem has a negative and abusive theme.

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.