Jianou Gao
Instructor: Jennifer Alberghini
ENG165H
October 13, 2016
Family affection is an important part of the life, and everyone has some special memories that related to the family. “My Papa’s Waltz” by Theodore Roethke is a poem that describe a scene of a family, which is the mother looks at the father and the son who are romping around and dancing in the kitchen. It seems like a normal scene of a family, however, this poem makes readers confused about the relationship of this family, that it is a happy or unhappy moment of the family. Therefore, this poem has controversy that readers have multiple opinions in different visions.
If readers read “My Papa’s Waltz” with optimism, this poem might be talk about a happy experience of the family …show more content…
It reflects that the son treasures every moment that he stays with his father. In the second stanza of the poem, Roethke described the scene of dance, which is “the father and the son are romping around in the kitchen”, and they make “the pans slid from the kitchen shelf” (5-6). And Roethke puts a new character in this stanza, the mother. The mother is watching at her husband and her son, but “her face is not frowning” (7-8). It shows the mother is dumbfounding that romp makes pans fail, but she does not stop their romping. Maybe the mother also treasures the moment of family members stay together. And then, Roethke gives a feature of the hand of the father, which describes “the father’s hand is battered” (9-10). It might reflect that the father is the head of the family, because he needs work hard to support the family. At the last stanza of the poem, Roethke writes: “the father use his dirty hands beat on the head of the son, he throws the son away to the bed, but the son hold on his cloth tenaciously” (13-16). The beats might be the rhythm of waltz, and the father is beating with his dirty hands, it shows that father also love to dance with the son although he comes back home …show more content…
His words make readers confused about the relationship between the son and the father. All the opinions are depending on how reader think about it. If readers think as a good way, this poem is describing about a good scene of a family, which is the father, the son and the mother loves each other. If readers think as a bad way, this poem is describing about how the son gets hurt from a drunken father, and bad relationship between them which is reflected by the mother and the son fear to say anything that might be make the father and the husband angry; and also reflected by the father take careless of the feeling of his wife and his
Instructor: Jennifer Alberghini
ENG165H
October 13, 2016
Family affection is an important part of the life, and everyone has some special memories that related to the family. “My Papa’s Waltz” by Theodore Roethke is a poem that describe a scene of a family, which is the mother looks at the father and the son who are romping around and dancing in the kitchen. It seems like a normal scene of a family, however, this poem makes readers confused about the relationship of this family, that it is a happy or unhappy moment of the family. Therefore, this poem has controversy that readers have multiple opinions in different visions.
If readers read “My Papa’s Waltz” with optimism, this poem might be talk about a happy experience of the family …show more content…
It reflects that the son treasures every moment that he stays with his father. In the second stanza of the poem, Roethke described the scene of dance, which is “the father and the son are romping around in the kitchen”, and they make “the pans slid from the kitchen shelf” (5-6). And Roethke puts a new character in this stanza, the mother. The mother is watching at her husband and her son, but “her face is not frowning” (7-8). It shows the mother is dumbfounding that romp makes pans fail, but she does not stop their romping. Maybe the mother also treasures the moment of family members stay together. And then, Roethke gives a feature of the hand of the father, which describes “the father’s hand is battered” (9-10). It might reflect that the father is the head of the family, because he needs work hard to support the family. At the last stanza of the poem, Roethke writes: “the father use his dirty hands beat on the head of the son, he throws the son away to the bed, but the son hold on his cloth tenaciously” (13-16). The beats might be the rhythm of waltz, and the father is beating with his dirty hands, it shows that father also love to dance with the son although he comes back home …show more content…
His words make readers confused about the relationship between the son and the father. All the opinions are depending on how reader think about it. If readers think as a good way, this poem is describing about a good scene of a family, which is the father, the son and the mother loves each other. If readers think as a bad way, this poem is describing about how the son gets hurt from a drunken father, and bad relationship between them which is reflected by the mother and the son fear to say anything that might be make the father and the husband angry; and also reflected by the father take careless of the feeling of his wife and his