The Actual Meaning of My Papa's Waltz by Theodore Roethke Essay

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.

Roethke uses dramatic irony throughout the poem due to the fact that the reader knows what is going on, but the child does not. The reader knows that the father is under the influence of alcohol and is being abusive to the child and his mother, but the child does not know that, or he does not see it that way at least. In line four Roethke says, “Such waltzing was not easy.”. The child sees it as a graceful dance, for in this line he is saying that he cannot keep up with his father’s waltz since it is complex. That is only one side though, he might know the truth, but he just does not understand the reason for the choreography being used, that being his father’s despicable actions. He is covering the reality with the idea that he does not understand the steps to his father’s dance. He is in fact creating a happy

In the next stanza (380) it states, “we romped until the pans/ slide of the kitchen shelf.” Some will see as the father was too drunk to dance and he fell over knocking the pans off the shelf. I understood it as a father and son playing around in the kitchen which means they seemed contentment and accidentally knocking down the pans the mother just cleaned. Then the mother seemed to be upset as they knocked them down.

The title of a poem should dictate how the reader approaches the subject that is being discussed. In the title of this poem, the speaker refers to his father as “papa”. This shows that the speaker is very close with his father in this moment. This poem is classified as a lyric, which privileges the individual moment. By looking at what a lyric is, the reader should realize that one cannot assume that the speaker felt this way about his father for his whole life. He is just talking about how he was feeling in that particular moment. “My Papa’s Waltz” is told in a dual point of view. The speaker is thinking back now as an older man about how he felt when he was a child. A “waltz” is defined as “a dance in triple time performed to music in triple time by couples who, almost embracing each other, swing round and round in the same direction with smooth and even steps moving on as they gyrate” (OED). In the poem, Roethke mimics the ¾ time of the traditional waltz with three beats per line and four lines per stanza but reverses the meter. Therefore, the poem is actually a waltz in itself.

Readers of poetry appreciate poems that challenge their thinking and require critical analysis of various elements to determine an appropriate interpretation. One such poem is Theodore Roethke’s “My Papa’s Waltz,” which combines character, setting, and word choice to create questions in the reader’s mind. Looking closely, it appears that Theodore Roethke portrays a scene of un-intentional abuse between a father and his young son.

As we can see, Roethke 's poem is ambiguous in meaning. However, there is many elements supporting the idea that the poem imply an abusive alcoholic father and his dysfunctional relationship with his son. The use of poetic language and style help convey the complex meaning of the poem. In addition, the poem is an excellent example of irony. The poem appears to be written by the boy in the story when he is an adult. Apparently, the man realizes that his father 's irresponsible actions were his ways of actually demonstrating his true affections towards

In the poem "My Papa's Waltz" written by Theodore Roethke, the interpretation of the poem depends on the readers`perspective. Some people think that this poem is one of a happy exchange between a father and son. Other people believe that this poem has a hidden message of parental abuse. In my point of view, the imagery and language, the symbolism, and tone in the poem gave me the impression of the love between the father and son, not of an abusive relationship.

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.

​“My Papas Waltz” by Theodore Roethke comes across in many different ways to its readers. Some say that it is about a child describing his childhood abuse or possibley just about a child enjoying time with his father. The recall of the memory is perhaps read as a bittersweet moment or maybe more bitter than sweet. The poem interpreted to me is about a boy reminiscing on fun times with his father.

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, Roethke uses diction that shows his emotions towards his father. In the first stanza, the poet says:” The whiskey on your breath Could make a small boy dizzy; But I hung on like death: Such waltzing was not easy.” Even though his father is a drunk he still loves him. He says “I hung on like death” which emphasizes the bond he has with his father while they are waltzing together. This also shows a strong sense of love and affection he has for him. Because his father’s breath reeked of whiskey, it was hard for them to waltz with ease. Also, the poet somewhat describes pain in way as well when he uses the words “battered” and “scraped” in the third stanza. He uses these word battered because he's describing that his father’s hands as worn out and beat up because he probably works really hard at his job which requires a lot of labor and the description of that word shows the reader that he works hard at what he does. With the word scraped, this shows pain because when the poet and his father waltz, his right ear scraped because his father was drunk on the whiskey and it made him a little dizzy and the poet most likely hit something which scraped his ear. The poet also uses the word “romped”; this describes that the son and the father are having fun together waltzing even though they are being careless as they are bumping into the pots and pans in the kitchen which annoys the mother as described in the second stanza in the last two lines.

The third and fourth stanzas become ambiguous with the use of diction such as "battered" in Stanza 3 and "beat" in Stanza 4. A significant change in these stanzas is also that the speaker addresses his father directly, whereas the first two stanzas told the story in the third person. However, there are certain elements that clarify the intent of the subject matter, not to describe or address a father who was abusive, but rather to describe the realities of life at the time. In Stanza 3, for example, it is important to note that it was the father's knuckle was battered. In Stanza 4, he did not beat the boy himself, but rather kept time on his head with his palm. The palm that was caked by dirt could have been from a day at menial labor or falling on the way from drinking whiskey. The buckle that scraped the child's ear appears to be the result of an accidental misstep rather than intentionally harmful.

Whenever Roethke talks about “[beating time on my head]”(13) the only thing I can imagine him discussing is that time is precious and should not be wasted, something our parents already stress to us as their children. In the next line of the stanza he continues to emphasis the hard work that his father does by metaphorically describing his dirty hands as “[palms caked hard by dirt]”(14). Like everything else in the world, there is always an ending. Now their song is over, as is their dance, and the father is “[waltzing him off to bed/as he clings to his father’s shirt]”(15-16). He clings to this shirt now more than ever, because his shirt is all that he has left of him. His disease has ran it’s course and has

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.

While the subject of “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 look back on his most fondest childhood memories he has created of dancing with his father.