Theodore Roethke’s “My Papa’s waltz” and Susan Musgraves “You didn’t Fit” are two poems that capture the love between a child and their father. While “My Papa’s waltz” illustrates the contrast of love and honor and “You didn’t Fit” illustrates a contrast of nostalgia and affection. In both poems the speakers seem to look back on their childhoods with much love and respect for their fathers. In “My papa’s waltz” it is a poem that is often well-known for having different interpretations. The most well-known interpretation is the idea of the waltz serving as a metaphor for abuse. This is ironic because the use of the word waltz proposes a cheerful dance. The first glance of this poem appears as if the boys’ father has come home in a drunken rage taken his anger out on his son as displayed in the first stanza “The whiskey on your breath/ could make a small boy dizzy”.(1-2) and in stanza two “We romped until the pans slid from the kitchen shelf.”(5-6) with a closer look you can see that this poem is really about a child’s perspective of a drunken father who has come home in a good
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(5-8)
This viewpoint form the boy reflects the message that sometimes one parent may not agree with the activities of the other parent meanwhile the child is caught in the middle. This perspective reveals the message that the boy and his father had a positive relationship even with the discontentment of his mother.
In the poem “You didn’t fit” the tone is very captivating it allows us to get an inside look into the intimate aspects of a father-daughter relationship. The reader is made aware of how the departed man’s daughter reflects on her father’s challenging life with affection instead of grief as described here:
A human smile that shuts me out
The court, I remember, returned
Your teeth, now marked an exhibit.
You were dismissed with cost
I never understood. The teeth
(5-8)
This viewpoint form the boy reflects the message that sometimes one parent may not agree with the activities of the other parent meanwhile the child is caught in the middle. This perspective reveals the message that the boy and his father had a positive relationship even with the discontentment of his mother.
In the poem “You didn’t fit” the tone is very captivating it allows us to get an inside look into the intimate aspects of a father-daughter relationship. The reader is made aware of how the departed man’s daughter reflects on her father’s challenging life with affection instead of grief as described here:
A human smile that shuts me out
The court, I remember, returned
Your teeth, now marked an exhibit.
You were dismissed with cost
I never understood. The teeth