Theodore Roethke wrote the poem “My Papa’s Waltz” which reflects on his childhood memories of his father carrying him to bed. He reminisces about a past memory of him clinging to his father while walking through the house in a drunken state. He remembers how the voluminous smell of whiskey on his father’s breath could make him dizzy. How his father would accidently knock the pans until they fell off the kitchen shelf still lingers in his memory. He recalls his ear being scraped against his father’s
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"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
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parent-child relationship and is utterly unjustifiable. Every person has a father and has their own reflections of the personal feelings they have encountered‚ nevertheless these feelings can be those of affection or feelings of resentment. The poem‚ “My Papa’s Waltz” (Roethke) illustrates a son’s reminiscence of waltzing with his father as a young boy‚ painting a picture of love and admiration towards his father. However‚ because the poet seems isolated‚ a reader’s perception can vary throughout the poem
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reading “My Papa’s Waltz” by Theodore Roethke‚ one might infer a violent commotion between a father and son. However‚ if read closely‚ a reader will notice that the boy hung onto his father throughout the entirety of the waltz despite becoming “dizzy” (line 2)‚ and “scrapped” (line 12). In fact‚ in this poem‚ the narrator is reflecting upon a joyful memory he had with his father. Firstly‚ if a person were to dissect the title of the poem‚ “My Papa’s Waltz‚” they would discover that “Papa” is a term
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The poem My Papa’s Waltz describes a child’s nostalgia towards his conflicted relationship with his father. In this poem the tone of the speaker is characterized by the deep devotion and love he felt towards his father during his youth. Looking back on the time his father spent playing with him when he was a child‚ the speaker describes “[hanging] on like death” and “clinging to [his] shirt” (Roethke 3‚16). These childlike descriptions show that the speaker felt a deep devotion to his father and
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Thesis 1 When first reading “My Papa’s Waltz” I got the impression of an abusive household where the father beats the son and the mother stands idly by allowing this to happen. After a couple more reads I saw the humor of the words explaining a clumsy waltz between a father and son. There are satiric words used leading many to believe that the son is being abused‚ but there are also contradictions in those words which leads in a different direction. My final direction is that the father is abusing
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Essay……………………………………………………………………………………………………2 Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………………………5 Bibliography ……………………………………………………………………………………6 Introduction: For this paper‚ you will be able to encounter the various meanings‚ tones‚ structure‚ my personal opinion and analysis of the poem “My Papa’s Waltz” by Theodore Roethke. For more to add‚ you will also encounter with a brief biography of the poet Roethke which will explain why the poet wrote this poem and how much meaning it has for him. The reason why I chose this
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Upon reading Roethke’s “My Papa’s Waltz” one would think the poem entirely talks about the dance and how it was special and memorable to the speaker just by the title. However‚ this ‘waltz’ is interpreted many different ways in the poem. The poem starts off describing the speaker’s presumed father’s smell of “whiskey on your breath” to show that he was drinking heavily (Roethke 1). This smell can also be described as quite strong because of the fact that it “could make a small boy dizzy” (2). This
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Love or Abuse? That is the Question Theodore Roethke’s “My Papa’s Waltz” tells the reader of a small boy’s memory of his father. It explains how his father is intoxicated and the scene that goes along with it. Roethke’s style in this poem leaves the reader with the task of determining if he speaks of abuse or a happy reminiscence. Critics describe it as being a “mixture of tenderness and brutality” (Malkoff). In the first two lines‚ he recounts the smell of his father’s breath. Roethke’s use
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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. There is a lot of imagery in this poem. There are descriptions like‚ “we romped around until the pans slid from the kitchen shelf. There is imagery in every stanza. Roethke uses great word choice too. It is imperative
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