The speaker uses stylistic devices to acknowledge how hard his father works to make his…
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…
Them being loving also meant that they were caring. “So I dragged him across the burning cotton field” (Hurst 2). That shows how much he cared. Also how much of his time he put into Doddle. “You don’t deserve him” (Johnson, Simon Birch). That is what he said to Simon’s parents when they were making fun of Simon.…
The possessive pronoun is used as a technique in the first stanza to establish the strong and respected relationship between Peter Skrzynecki and his father Felikes Skrzynecki. “My” is seen as the possessive pronoun and is used in the first line “My gentle father”. This possessive pronoun effectively explores the idea of belonging because it is used to show the strong relationship between the father and the son. Cultural belonging is also explored through the first stanza.this form of cultural belonging shows how Felikes Skrzynecki is disconnected from Australia, but belongs to his garden because it reminds him of his previous life within Europe. The word “Love” is used as a technique of Emotive language to express his sense of belonging. Peter Skrzynecki describes that his father “loved his garden like an only child”. The use of emotive language shows how Feliks Skrzynecki belongs to his garden.…
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…
This illustrates how the narrator admired his dad and was only focusing on him during these precious moments. This ties back to endearment, with the author wanting you to feel the same way he did. Therefore, with…
The description of his physical state also reinforces the idea of respect to his father, as evident in the phrase…
"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…
Since the father and son are both very contrary to each other, just like the setting, the father admires his son a lot for the different things he likes to do. At the beginning of the story when they are placing their shoes beside each other’s, the father gets an…
In the poem “Those Winter Sundays”, the speaker is reflecting on his childhood and his lack of real emotion towards his father while he was a young child. When the speaker becomes an adult, he regrets not realizing that his father had his own way of affection towards him. In the present, the speaker realizes how hard and desolate it is to show parental love to someone. The poem‘s diction helps paint a vivid picture to the reader about the emotions in this piece.…
Whenever a poem is written without a clear understanding on how it should be interpreted both positive and negative emotions arise. One might try to pick up on the catchy rhymes that are meant for it to be comical, while other notice the harsh adjective and nouns associating with death. When a poem combines the innocence of a child at play associating with a drunken, hardworking father a lighthearted and brutal mental picture arises in one’s head. In the poem “My Papa’s Waltz” by Theodor Roethke, elements of humor and fear arise in many scholars interpretations, while I believe that the elements of fear coming from the young boys lines eliminate any humorous aspect.…
After reading the poem “My Papa’s Waltz” by Theodore Roethke (807), I realized that there are many different opinions about this poem. Some people think that this poem is about parental abuse, the other also think that it is about the happy memory of the relationship between father and son. In my point of view, the speaker in the poem is expressing his joyful time when he’s dancing with his father. The whole poem is talking about the memory of the author about waltzing with his father when he was young. This poem has four stanzas and each stanza has four quatrains.…