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.…
His poem "My Papa's Waltz" is a very emotionally stimulating poem. Roethke’s use of ethos in this poem helps establish his creditability. He writes the poem from a first-hand perspective, recounting some very vivid memories from a night with his father. With his use of pathos and ambiguity usually leaves the interpretation of the poem up to the reader. Some people may consider this poem to describe an abusive relationship between a young boy and his father. On the contrary, some believe this poem reflects on fond memories between a father and son.…
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…
Both Robert Hayden and Theodore Roethke depicts how fathers in both poems love their child, but shows in different ways. “Those Winter Sundays” in line 1 Hayden states “Sundays too my father got up early,” and in line 5 “banked fires blaze.” These lines show how the father in “Those Winter Sundays” always got up early to set up a fire in the house in order warm up the house before the family got up. The father never cared for how early and how cold it was, he would always get up take care of the fire not for himself but for the family. This shows how the father is always there for the family but is not upfront with showing his love, he shows his love through doing what he thinks with help his family. In contrast, “My Papa’s Waltz” the father…
The wounded heart now enormous tune of sorrow, Skunk breath a force to linger tomorrow. Saint unreal a body-less per poster, Bound by force that will never divide as greater. Benevolent a flaunt of no remorse, Unmistakable tone unruly of course. Patch up the hole in your britches; water new soil, Be thankful thieves ravishes in turmoil.…
"Inside is where the son and father will always be holding hands"(Adam Johnson). All children one way or another have a special bond between them and their father. But, a father and son form an unbreakable bond. It's natural for a father to groom his son and teach him things he himself faced when he was once young. The poem "My Papa's Waltz" by Theodore Roethke entails a memory of a small boy and father perceived to be having a good time and having a good time and dancing despite the father being drunk. “My Papa’s Waltz” is a positive childhood experience because the drunk father made time for his son, the father worked hard to provide for his family and the small boy loved his father unconditionally.…
In “My Papa’s Waltz’ by Theodore Roethke, the speaker’s tone towards his father is one that is loving and admiring. This is seen in the word choice of the speaker when interacting with his father.…
In the poem “My Papas Waltz” by Theodore Roethke and in the short story “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” by Flannery O’ Connor they both share some similarities. Both the story and the poem illustrate topics such as family, innocence and selfishness.…
In the poem, “My Papa’s Waltz”, Theodore Roethke uses many connotations and detail that could be understood as positive or negative, but in my eyes, the word choice and intense details seem indicate a more sullen tone and a more abusive behavior towards the speaker. This poem is about a father and a son “waltzing” in their kitchen with their mother watching. Roethke does use a few words such as clinging and romped that could indicate a playful dance and a child clinging to their loving father not wanting to go to bed; however, there is more predominant language that shows an abusive father. The author first indicates that the whiskey on the father’s breath could make the son dizzy. This shows that the father has been drinking a large amount…
Theodore Roethke writes about a loving relationship between a father and his son in the poem “My Papa Waltz”. Their relation is so close and loving even though the father is alcoholic “the whiskey in your breath could make a boy dizzy.” He hung’s on to the dance with him and they dance through the kitchen making a mess and the son knows his mother will disapprove of it “my mother’s countenance could not inform itself.” The father waltzes his son to bed but he still insists on his shirt and this proves his love for his dad despite his shortcomings.…
"My Papa's Waltz" is one of most popular contemporary poems written by Theodore Roethke. The poem was first published in 1942 by Heast Magazines, Inc. from The Collected Poems of Theodore Roethke. It is a poem about a boy recalling a time with his father while they share a dance of waltz. This poem consists of four quatrains written in iambic trimeter with a simple rhyme scheme. It uses imagery, metaphors, and simile to invoke a strong impression. Each image captures an emotional richness all told from an innocent point of view of a child. At first glance, this poem has a tone of playfulness that captures the bond between father and son. Yet as one looks closely, the poem has a curious ambiguity that evokes multiple interpretations. The use of sardonic words to describe an affectionate moment is misleading and ultimately the readers are left to wonder whether the boy in the poem is suggesting some type of abuse or…
“My Papa’s Waltz” is a poem written by Theodore Roethke. In which it is written about a father and son who are dancing together before bedtime. The story can be interpreted as having two sides behind it. One being a more joyful scenario which is the interaction between a father who is playing with his child and encounters a few rough moments such as when Roethke said “My right ear scraped a buckle” which shows how the boy is short and standing up he is only up to his father’s waist causing his “right ear to scrape a buckle.” On the other half it seems like the boy is being tortured or beaten by the father. Throughout the text it shows the boy and father having a bad encounter with each other and the mother not being able to say anything, but when looking at it closely the reason it comes off as an abusive poem is because of the words being chosen by Roethke. It seems like the boy is being…
Despite using essentially the same music to both opening numbers, Sondheim’s lyrics contrasts each other both in theme and in vocabulary that it provides a completely unique atmosphere for the audience. In the opening number “Bounce” it is important to notice the usage of rhyme particularly in the duet portions of the song “You’re hot, then you’re not… Find a new road/Forge a new trail/Bounce” (5-26). In this passage, Sondheim invokes his mentor Oscar Hammerstein’s purpose of rhyme is to give a character intellect and reveal an important motif to the story. In this passage, Sondheim utilizes a combination of internal and true end rhymes to give the audience an impression of an educational background. Beginning with an internal true rhyme “You’re…
In “My Papa’s Waltz”, American poet Theodore Roethke transforms the horrid experience of a child being beaten by his father into the romantic and beautiful dance of a waltz. Written in trecet iambs to imitate the relaxing beat of the waltz, the poet installs some sense of pleasure in the reader. In doing so, Roethke makes the subject of a beating more readable and lessening the effect of the drunkenness makes the speaker’s father more forgivable. The lucidity of diction and imagery throughout Roethke’s poem distracts from the underlying dark metaphor of a son being beaten by his drunk father to a graceful waltz.…
In this stylistic analysis of the lost baby poem written by Lucille Clifton I will deal mainly with two aspects of stylistic: derivation and parallelism features present in the poem. However I will first give a general interpretation of the poem to link more easily the stylistic features with the meaning of the poem itself.…