My Papas Waltz Analysis

“My Papas Waltz” 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.
When analyzing the poem even the title has meaning besides its obvious use. The author uses the word papa, which is a child’s term for father, this clues us in that a child wrote this, but the author also uses adult language “countenance”, this provides reasonable evidence that this is a memory. This poem also has a formulated pattern of every other line rhyming. This could stand for the
This gives the audience an idea of the intensity that the little boy is experiencing. Roethke the moves to the third stanza were he incorporates a metaphor “At every step you missed” meaning because of the fathers bad habits he missed parts of his sons life that were important to the son. The author whether he meant to generalize the sons age or not, he gives us a clue of this when he says” My right ear scraped a buckle “. You should notice that Roethke uses the syllable “a” instead of “his” this points out the boys love for his father, and his attitude that his dad could do no wrong. As the author moves to produce the forth stanza he emphasizes the fact that his dad did work hard with imagery “With a palm caked hard by dirt”. Roethke then moves to create an assonance effect by rhyming “hard by dirt “and “to your shirt”. The author then ends with capitalizing on that perfect parent attitude, “Still clinging to your shirt “. This could also be a son wishing for the return of his father. The lucidity and cheerfulness of the rhythm succeed to some extent in hiding the pathos and resentment in the poem. It also exhibits cause and effect because of dad’s alcoholism, the boy’s life was harder than those with sober parents.