Synthesis Of My Papa's Waltz By Theodore Roethke
Synthesis of “My Papa’s Waltz”
“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 …show more content…
Triggering each person to receive the poem in a different way. (Fong page 80-81) Some saw it as being joyful with the son and father dancing and some saw it as the father being abusive with his son. Which can be assumed by the words used starting with “whiskey on your breath” implying that the father was drunk. In a book written by Jim Baird he talks about the poem “My Papa’s Waltz”. He talks about how the poem was about the way his father shows his love to his son and how the son feared the actions done by his father. (Baird) Baird goes ahead and talks about how the fear that the son had while doing the waltz was caused by the son having to hold on so tight that he would not fall. Since the dance is so intense it comes off as being abusive. Which does not mean that the father was abusive his way of showing his affection for the boy was shown after a long day of hard work leaving
“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 …show more content…
Triggering each person to receive the poem in a different way. (Fong page 80-81) Some saw it as being joyful with the son and father dancing and some saw it as the father being abusive with his son. Which can be assumed by the words used starting with “whiskey on your breath” implying that the father was drunk. In a book written by Jim Baird he talks about the poem “My Papa’s Waltz”. He talks about how the poem was about the way his father shows his love to his son and how the son feared the actions done by his father. (Baird) Baird goes ahead and talks about how the fear that the son had while doing the waltz was caused by the son having to hold on so tight that he would not fall. Since the dance is so intense it comes off as being abusive. Which does not mean that the father was abusive his way of showing his affection for the boy was shown after a long day of hard work leaving