My Papa's Waltz By Theodore Roethke

"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. To understand the depth of Roethke's
poem, we can start by identifying the different layers of tones in "My Papa's Waltz". At first glance of the poem, one might think that it is a very dark, gloomy story. The words that give away this melancholy tone are: whiskey, death, unfrown, scraped, and beat. Roethke continues the drunken theme in the beginning of the poem with the slant rhymes. These near rhymes and appearance rhymes help create the allusion that there is some obscurity and slurring going on. Whether Roethke wanted this or not, the reader will focus on these aspects of the poem more heavily because society is instantly protective of a child in danger. The poem is setup for the reader to think there is alcoholism and child abuse going on in this family by the masculine father with the mother is just standing by frowning because she is unable to do anything. On the contrary, the speaker views this scene as a very cherished memory.
If we look closely, there is a deeper, more loving tone in the speaker's voice for his father. We can tell by looking at the vocabulary and syntax used in the poem. Referring to his father as "Papa" automatically gives away that the boy still loves father because papa was an affectionate term used by innocent young boys at the time. The boy also uses terms like waltzing, romped, slid, and clinging to suggest the situation was more playful than violent. For example, Roethke could have said that the pans fell or dropped from the kitchen shelf but he went with slid to make the effects of the scene less drastic. Another example would be "the hand that held my wrist". If the Roethke truly intended for it to be abusive, much stronger language would have been chosen over held. In fact, one could argue that this ritual between the father and the speaker is routine seeing as the mother was doing nothing to prevent any harm from coming to her son. She was quite possibly only frowning because of the big mess in the kitchen. My theory would be is that the boy is stuck at home all day with no father because he as hard at work all day, hence the rough and "battered" hands. The father comes home and immediately unwinds by having a few whiskey drinks. Therefore the only fun and interaction the speaker can have with his father is this troublesome, playful waltz about going to bed on time. Roethke desires to be with
his father so he "clings" on to this moment every night. There is also some very interesting symmetry and imagery used by Roethke in this poem. The common tempo to the dance, the waltz, is a gliding, three step routine. This parallels with the consistent iambic trimeter in the poem as I mentioned in the first paragraph. Roethke also likes to use enjambments in "My Papa's Waltz". Enjambment is when a thought or phrase continues across line breaks, usually without punctuation. This could symbolize the continuous movement the waltz has as the partners strut across the room in such a fluid manner. The poem also has consistent falling rhyme and rising rhyme in the first and third quatrains. This associates with the constant swaying back and forth in the waltz dance. But Roethke breaks the rhythm in the second and fourth quatrains to reiterate to the reader that there is still this drunkenness factor and that their waltzing will not be perfect. Finally, one very fascinating reference to the waltz dance in the poem is the way the boy gets injured. Typically, after the dancers position themselves in form to start the waltz, they turn and tilt their head to the left. So if the speaker and their Papa truly were waltzing, it would make sense for the boy to scrape his right ear on the belt buckle since that is the direction he would be facing.