In Roethke’s “My Papa’s Waltz” one can say it is a beautiful dance between a father and a son before bed time or even past bed time. The son gets to spend time with his dad every night. To a child anytime spent with his father is a memory the boy will always have. The little boy looks up to his father. A father loves his son very much, maybe even breaking some rules to spend time with him. The father dances around the kitchen with his son. The poem states that the father has a heavy dose of whiskey on his breath (“The whisky on your Breath / could make a small boy dizzy”). This could possibly be due to the father having a rough or stressful job. When he arrives home he likes to release the tension by having a glass of whiskey as he enjoys
