Throughout this paper I will analyze and interpret the main thoughts, emotions, and reasonings in two poems. The two poems include a common theme which helps put these poems in a place that is relevant for everybody and that is families. The families in these poems differ, nevertheless, they still relate on common ground. The first poem “My Papa’s Waltz” by Theodore Roethke paints a relatively profound picture of a young boy and his father violently dancing throughout the house. Putting the prime focus on the aspect of emotion we will vividly discuss the young boy and the struggle with his father, the dance or waltz suggests power, fear, and love. Regardless of the power and fear that the father represents the boy still is clinging to his shirt
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The young boy and his father waltz’s around but in a way that suggest power, fear, and love. This young boy has to go through a violent waltz with his father who can be assumed to be drinking, “The whiskey on your breath could make a small boy dizzy” (1-2). There immediately follows a simile “But I hung on like death” (3). This diction used more or less portrays negativity and the violent nature of his father’s waltz. The next line poses as a transition and sets the tone for the rest of the poem, “such waltzing was not easy” (4). This could also be seen as an extended metaphor throughout the poem that reflects on the young boy and his father’s relationship, that was not easy as …show more content…
“Now I pass the bums in the doorways”(16-17). This metaphor is comparing her father to a bum that has lost everything and the alliteration that follows focusing on a “s” sound brings emphasis to this defeated resemblance of her father, “slugs of their bodies gleaming through slits in their suits of compressed silt, the stained flippers of their hands” (19-21). Then the abused child, now a woman is questioning how her father ended up to the position where he is now. There is also a sense of pitiful condescending in her tone of voice when speaking about her broken down father, “I wonder who took it and took it from them in silence until they had given it all away and had nothing left but this” (23-26). Again the author focuses on the phrase “took it” now directed at the father finally portraying that he is now the victim. The repetition of the phrase “took it” is interesting because it is vague and provides a sense in which you can imagine and engage in your own personal ideas and beliefs as to what it means. The phrase is paralleled with the victims, first it was the mother by the either psychological or physical abuse. The same with the children, however, it is different and delayed until they grow up and are fully able to understand the situation then lastly with the broken down
The young boy and his father waltz’s around but in a way that suggest power, fear, and love. This young boy has to go through a violent waltz with his father who can be assumed to be drinking, “The whiskey on your breath could make a small boy dizzy” (1-2). There immediately follows a simile “But I hung on like death” (3). This diction used more or less portrays negativity and the violent nature of his father’s waltz. The next line poses as a transition and sets the tone for the rest of the poem, “such waltzing was not easy” (4). This could also be seen as an extended metaphor throughout the poem that reflects on the young boy and his father’s relationship, that was not easy as …show more content…
“Now I pass the bums in the doorways”(16-17). This metaphor is comparing her father to a bum that has lost everything and the alliteration that follows focusing on a “s” sound brings emphasis to this defeated resemblance of her father, “slugs of their bodies gleaming through slits in their suits of compressed silt, the stained flippers of their hands” (19-21). Then the abused child, now a woman is questioning how her father ended up to the position where he is now. There is also a sense of pitiful condescending in her tone of voice when speaking about her broken down father, “I wonder who took it and took it from them in silence until they had given it all away and had nothing left but this” (23-26). Again the author focuses on the phrase “took it” now directed at the father finally portraying that he is now the victim. The repetition of the phrase “took it” is interesting because it is vague and provides a sense in which you can imagine and engage in your own personal ideas and beliefs as to what it means. The phrase is paralleled with the victims, first it was the mother by the either psychological or physical abuse. The same with the children, however, it is different and delayed until they grow up and are fully able to understand the situation then lastly with the broken down