Theodore Roethke’s My Papa’s Waltz has caused a lot of controversy throughout the years amongst literary critics, scholars, teachers, and students alike. Despite its innocent façade, upon closer inspection this poem is about a quite scary subject; a drunk father abusing his son. Many readers, preferring to ignore what a close read will inevitably lead them to, say that this is a happy memory between a father, albeit drunk as well as possibly a bit rough, and his son. One of the things that makes this poem so hard to interpret is that there is no clear indication as to whom the subject is, aside from a young boy. The narrator often speaks in the first person, however that does not mean Roethke is the narrator. It is not uncommon in literature
