The Interpretation Of My Papa's Waltz By Theodore Roethke

Theodore Roethke’s poem,” My Papa’s Waltz” is one that can be interpreted in two ways. For some they say that the boy is enjoying the dance with his father, others say he does not. Neither interpretation can be definitively correct because that decision is solely up to the reader. It is up to that individual reader to weigh every aspect of the story and come to their own conclusion on what it all meant. The stance for this essay will be that, “My Papa’s Waltz” has a negative connotation because of how it is written, the words used, and what is happening within the story.

When reading this poem the reader gets many different emotions and is constantly having to think in-depth about what each line could really mean. The poem has this effect
because of the way it was written. The way a poem is written is an important factor because it is there that the certain mood, pace, and rhyme scheme is decided for the story. All of those aspects tie together to help the reader understand what the author is attempting to say within the poem. One of the first things that pops out to the reader is the repetitive rhyme scheme that “My Papa’s Waltz” has. In it Roethke employs the ABAB rhyme scheme and the decision for this is up to the reader's interpretation. Some may think he did this to show the differences between lines while others may think he did this to show the patterns within the story. The overall mood and feeling the poem had was another important aspect to the story. At many times throughout the poem the main character either feels sad, scared, or nervous and we can pick this all up from the feeling the writing gives off. Throughout the poem we continue to get descriptions of all the negative things happening to our speaker, from the point of view of the speaker. For instance, when he says,” But I hung on like death: / Such waltzing was not easy” (3-4). From the way these lines were written it can be interpreted that our character was not enjoying the experience, but yet having to endure it. How a poem is written can help the reader better understand what the author is trying to say and how it is supposed to be interpreted. It is in the word choice, however that a reader can really get a grasp on what the author truly means.

The negativity of this poem continues into the word choice as well.
It can be seen in the third line of the poem, “But I hung on like death:” (3), in the word “death.” Using a word like that is not common for the situation it was used in and as a result it makes the reader have to think what it could mean. The concept of death is one that affects all things living, a natural and unavoidable inevitability of life. Due to this fact it is not a stretch to say that death’s clutches are strong enough that nothing can escape it. It is in this sense of the word that Roethke describes just how hard the boy in holding onto his father. The word death also carries a sort of natural negatively with it which helps to overall dark tone move along with the story. Later on our speaker describes part of their dance when he says, “At every step you missed / My right ear scraped a buckle.” (11-12). The word buckle is far from an uncommon word but it does carry some weight in this context. The context for this poem being the potential abuse of this young boy. This negative context is further pushed with the mention of the buckle and by extension the belt it would be attached to, being one of the most common and stereotypical instruments of domestic abuse. The way a story is written and the words used within it are very important, but at the end of the day it is essential to comprehend exactly what is going on in the story for a true understanding of it to be
possible.

In every story there is potential for the writer to say one thing, but mean another.
The same goes for, “My Papa’s Waltz” so it is important to take a close look at the events of the story so any interpretation made can be made with the best evidence. The first two lines of the opening stanza go like this,” The whisky on your breath / Could make a small boy dizzy;” (1-2), right off the bat we are told that his father has drank so much that the vapors around him can affect his small boy, whom he is waltzing off to bed. A few lines later the waltz is described in more detail,” We romped until the pans / Slid from the kitchen shelf;” (5-6), this tells us that the boy obviously did not go willingly, since it caused enough ruckus to rattle the pans in the kitchen. To recap he is being taken to bed, where he doesn’t want to go, by his drunken father who is manhandling him considerably. This is a very unpleasant situation and one the young boy is most likely not enjoying on any level. Some may argue that this is actually a story of a young boy longing to spend more time with his father, but when lines like, “At every step you missed / My right ear scraped a buckle.” (11-12), show us that the young boy is literally getting injured by this dance. Albeit only a minor injury with only limited pain, but regardless of the pain level it would still be an uncomfortable thing to go through
anybody.

In Roethke’s poem we can see that he employed many different writing techniques to ensure that his message came across in the best way possible. For instance the poem would not have the same feel if written in another style or rhyme scheme. The story would have the same dark tone if the more negative words like death, battered, or beat had been traded for less impactful words. It shouldn’t be forgotten that the interpretation of the dance would not be the same if the waltz itself wasn’t described in the way it was. That way being a sad and overall unpleasant experience for our young speaker. Due to those factors, “My Papa’s Waltz” has a negative connotation because of how it was written, the words used, and what was happening within the story.