My Papa's Waltz Literary Devices

Theodore Roethke conveys a child’s unrelenting love and dependence to their parents despite the cruelness shown by them in the poem “My Papa’s Waltz”. The poem describes the child to be “clinging” (Roethke 16) to the father and is “hung on like death” (Roethke 3). Roethke depicts the dependence of the child to their father figure and the seeking of love they wish to be able to see. Children try to rationalize the things their parents do, so their behavior is viewed as nothing less than what is expected of a parent. However, they can sometimes convey hidden meanings when they attempt to cover up the truth. This is shown in the poem when a slant rhyme scheme is used. The words “dizzy” (Roethke 2) and “easy” (Roethke 4) aren’t used normally to rhyme together, but still work. This literary device is used to …show more content…
Holding a child’s wrist is not a loving action that a father would do when guiding them off to bed. Instead, this action can be interpreted as aggressive towards the child. Along with proving this point is the quote “my right ear scarped a buckle” (Roethke 12) indicating that the child is not only being held at their wrist, but is being dragged along by their wrist. The phrase is stating that the boy is being forced along that as the father walks the child is getting hurt by the rough movement sending him into his father’s belt buckle. Finally, the father is described to “beat time on my head” (Roethke 13) when it comes to the child. The word beat is such a strong word to describe a movement that while the child may be trying to hide the harsh reality of being beaten, the reality instead appears clearly to the reader. So, this waltz in the end may not truly be a dance, but a child’s way of wrapping their mind around their beatings delivered to them at the hand of their father whom they love whole