In the poem, My Papa’s Waltz, Theodore Roethke talks about a young boy’s relationship with his father. I think that the poem talks about how the young boy loves his father but their relationship is strained. I also think that the young boy fears that his father will drink himself to death.…
In the first stanza, Roethke starts off by setting a sort of ominous tone. “The whiskey on your breath / Could make a small boy dizzy” (1-2). Here he reveals to his readers that his father was drunk and the smell of his breath was unbearable. Subsequently, he goes on to describe the manner in which he was holding on to his father. “But I hung on like death / Such waltzing was not easy” (3-4). The simile here shows the boy holding onto his father as tight as he possibly could. It was not an easy task for the child but he was determined not to let go.…
Everyone grows up, leaving their childhood and their old life behind. When this happens, they will often look back on those happy times fondly, remembering how easy and nice it all was. In Theodore Roethke’s poem, “My Papa’s Waltz”, the speaker does just this. Nostalgically, he reflects upon a time when his father would waltz him around the house before taking him off to bed. Waltzing carelessly around the kitchen, clutching tightly to his inebriated, carefree father, knocking pans and pots down off the shelves, this is one of the prominent memories that the speaker has of his father. The poem reminisces on these times with his father, missing the time that they could dance together. The speaker’s father had his flaws, he had a job and wasn’t home as much, he…
1. How does the information contained in this statement aid us in our interpretation of poetry? What does it tell us into utterance? How has a previous equilibrium been unsettled? What is the speaker upset6 about?…
Theodore Roethke wrote many poems about his father, “My Papa’s Waltz” is one particular poem that is still the source of much debate, both in college classrooms and among established literary critics. Initially, the poem appears to be a young boys fond recollection of a dance with a tipsy, but loving father. Many who read it strongly disagree, and feel that the tone is much more severe, and alludes to a drunken and abusive father. To clarify this argument, one must closely analyze the syntax, and search for the true intent of Roethke’s careful chosen words. Upon close examination, the poem seems to convey an intriguing ambiguity that lends itself to both arguments.…
"My Papa's Waltz" by Theodore Roethke is a four quatrain poem written in iambic trimeter. The rhyme scheme present is abab, cdcd, efef, and ghgh. In the poem, the son is remembering a time when his father, who was excessively drunk at the time, carrying him through the kitchen off to bed. It was a rough, almost abusive, journey though because his father, who is already drunkenly waltzing him, is probably not used to handling things with care at work since his hands are described as "caked hard by dirt" and "battered on one knuckle". The speaker in the poem, the son, is clearly holding onto this memory of his father for whatever reason: maybe he died early, was working all the time, or abandoned the family.…
The poet demonstrates the reality of motherhood through metaphorical representation. This is evident through ‘someone she loved once passes by- too late’. This is a metaphorical representation of her past and it has changed from being lively in love to developing depressing thoughts within the park. As her ex-lover passes by, it is evident through metaphor 'From his neat head unquestionably rises a small balloon', this visually portrays that it is very clear that he left her, after seeing her being no longer young and fashionable, instead, contrastingly captured in the complex consequences as a result of motherhood. In her final statement to her ex-lover "its so nice to hear their chatter, watch them grow and thrive", it is proved that she continuously rehearsed this saying to tell herself falsehoods to remind herself that life is not monotonous and torturous instead their is some hope in motherhood that the change experienced can be…
Despite the dulcet cadence of the poem’s syntax, Roethke’s diction in certain lines of the poem disrupt the idealist dance that a son and father are participating in. With its simple ABAB rhyme scheme and trecet iambs, the true action of the poem is often lost among the sing-song quality of the lines; the rhythm almost acts as background music for the waltzing son and father. Themes of adoration and love are portrayed when the son “hung on” to his father (Roethke l. 3), implying that he appreciated the time he spent with his. The full line, however, states that the son “hung on like death”, which changes the tone of the poem from something that is cheerful to something that is violent and grim. This tone continues in the second stanza as they “romped until the pans/ Slid from the kitchen shelf” (ll. 5-6); these words used together create a scene of tumult and cacophony. The diction used in the poem creates a tone that can be rendered as both…
Upon reading “My Papa's Waltz” by Theodore Roethke, one might infer a violent commotion between a father and son. However, if read closely, a reader will notice that the boy hung onto his father throughout the entirety of the waltz despite becoming “dizzy” (line 2), and “scrapped” (line 12). In fact, in this poem, the narrator is reflecting upon a joyful memory he had with his father. Firstly, if a person were to dissect the title of the poem, “My Papa's Waltz,” they would discover that “Papa” is a term of endearment for a dad.…
Theodore Roethke, in his poem, “My Papas Waltz”, recounts his childhood and his experiences with his drunken father, where he compares it to a waltz. Roethke’s purpose was to illustrate his love for his father even though he drank. He adopts a contemplative tone in order to reflect similar feelings and experiences in his scholastic readers.…
In “My Papa’s Waltz”, Theodore Roethke portrays a father-son relationship that proves to be often brutal. The author uses enjambment within the poem to show the negative effects after actions; along with the metaphors describing the father and the beatings. For example, the boy would feel how “his right ear scraped a buckle” to the failures “at every step ‘you’ missed”. However, deep down in his heart, the boy loves his father. He describes him as a poor man whose “hand...was battered on one knuckle”. The hand was also “caked hard by dirt”, showing how he was hardworking enough to deserve pity.…
8. How does the poem apply to contemporary life? What passages could serve as satirical commentaries on people’s behavior today?…
The poem begins with domestic commands from the mother to child, such as when to “wash the white clothes” and how to “cook pumpkin fritters” portraying to us a typical dynamic of any mother and daughter relationship as in regards to domesticity but as the poem progresses we see changes and reasons for domestic commands as well as non domestic charges (Kincaid. Line 1,3). As the mother speaks, the young girl hears of the acceptable and unacceptable roles of a domesticated and conformed woman that her mother requires her to be. The poem then takes shift when the mother tells her daughter, “try to walk like a lady and not like the slut you are so bent on becoming” suggesting that the rest of the poem will be the mother’s commands and advice to the daughter on everything to do and not do so that she does not become a slut, (l.8). This seems rather deviant for a mother to tell her seemingly young child such a thing but throughout the series of instructions given in the poem we see that the mother is of an older generation…
The next element that I enjoyed from this poem is the tone that the author uses. I think there are two different tones that she is portraying, a sad tone and a stern tone. At the beginning when she is talking about the man holding is dead wife in his arms the tone seems sad. Then it changes when she is talking about the love and chivalry he is showing as well. I imagine her talking about the man’s courage in a very stern tone of voice.…
In a different light, everything in this poem is much more innocent than what the modern reader may think is implied. In the first stanza, the whiskey breath is not directly connected to alchoholism. In fact, alcoholism was not a common word that was used in 1942. It was extremely common for a man to come home from a hard day of work and have a strong liquor drink to relax. It still is in some families and cultures today. Roethke adds in the poem that the mother's expression was not pleasent, which tells the reader that maybe dad had a little too much with dinner (I hate that look!). If he was doing something horribly wrong, theres no doubt that mom would be doing something more than scowling in the…
