In Theodore Roethke’s “My Papa’s Waltz”, the reader is a shown a horrible experience, the beating of a child by his father told in a way of the beautiful dance—the waltz. Our poet tries to beautify it by making it a waltz. It has the same timing as a waltz, 3 4 time. Roethke uses language, imagery, and tone to set the theme of abuse. The tone of the poem sets the whole poem up. It creates the course of the poem. The first stanza of this poem set the whole mood of the poem. “The whiskey on your breath Could make a small boy dizzy; But I hung on like death: Such waltzing was not easy.” (1-4)
That very first line gets the mind thinking about alcoholism and abuse. People associate alcohol with abuse, when it comes to a family setting. Another line that supports the theme of abuse, “the hand that held my wrist” (9) and “my ear scraped a buckle.” (12) Those lines obviously lead the reader to think abuse, and most cases, the story is about abuse. The poet also uses language to show us his perspective of his writing. …show more content…
In the first stanza, the poem shows us a lot of phrases suggesting abuse. The one that stuck out the most was “the whiskey of your breath; could make a small boy dizzy.” (1-2). It shows that the persona had to deal with an alcoholic father since childhood. Another is “such waltzing was not easy” (4) and “but I hung on like death” (3). Both of those lines show resistance and surrender. The simile, “like death”, implies that the boy thought the behaviors of his father wouldn’t come to an end. He thought that death was the only thing that could save him. Line four shows that the boy learned at an early age, it wasn’t easy dealing with an alcoholic. Imagery, also shows us a window into the theme of the
That very first line gets the mind thinking about alcoholism and abuse. People associate alcohol with abuse, when it comes to a family setting. Another line that supports the theme of abuse, “the hand that held my wrist” (9) and “my ear scraped a buckle.” (12) Those lines obviously lead the reader to think abuse, and most cases, the story is about abuse. The poet also uses language to show us his perspective of his writing. …show more content…
In the first stanza, the poem shows us a lot of phrases suggesting abuse. The one that stuck out the most was “the whiskey of your breath; could make a small boy dizzy.” (1-2). It shows that the persona had to deal with an alcoholic father since childhood. Another is “such waltzing was not easy” (4) and “but I hung on like death” (3). Both of those lines show resistance and surrender. The simile, “like death”, implies that the boy thought the behaviors of his father wouldn’t come to an end. He thought that death was the only thing that could save him. Line four shows that the boy learned at an early age, it wasn’t easy dealing with an alcoholic. Imagery, also shows us a window into the theme of the