According to the Children's Grief Awareness Day Organization, one in five children will experience the death of someone close to them by the age of 18. Some of these children have lost their parents. This has some heavy-weighing effects on young people especially. For instance, the children's grief awareness day organization also states “72% believe their life would have been ‘much better’ if their parent hadn’t died so young.” When I first read “My Papa’s Waltz,” I perceived it as a playful dance between the two. After some closer examination, I realized it was much more and a puzzle piece to the author’s past. Theodore Roethke, the author of “My Papa’s Waltz,” was a victim of an early childhood death. His father died tragically of cancer
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This could correlate to Theodore Roethke’s own alcohol problem when his father died. It also can suggest that his father was a drunk, and that’s why he took up to drinking to handle his grief. After all, drinking was much more acceptable when Theodore was a child, which would support the claim that his father was an alcoholic. He was born in 1908, and the poem says that his ear scraped on his father’s belt buckle. This indicates that the child in the poem, which is likely Theodore Roethke himself, is about 9 to 10 years of age. This means that Theodore Roethke was a child in the 1910s, before alcohols ban in the 1920s, and when drinking was much more …show more content…
He specifically uses the word “death” to describe how he hangs on, bringing to mind his father’s death. Then it says “such waltzing was not easy.” The waltzing was not easy because it could have been their last waltz, or their last time together. Even though his father died when he was 14 and this poem suggests he was about 10 at the time, they could have known about cancer for some time. I conclude that this was their last waltz because the first two lines in the next stanza, it further explains the waltz by saying “We romped until the pans/slid from the kitchen shelf.” Romped is a word that expresses joy and having fun. They romped until the pans slid from the kitchen shelf, which signifies the end of the fun. This is further supported when the mother suddenly frowns in the next two lines, which could never be undone--meaning she could never forget the father’s death. From there, the waltz becomes chaotic. It
This could correlate to Theodore Roethke’s own alcohol problem when his father died. It also can suggest that his father was a drunk, and that’s why he took up to drinking to handle his grief. After all, drinking was much more acceptable when Theodore was a child, which would support the claim that his father was an alcoholic. He was born in 1908, and the poem says that his ear scraped on his father’s belt buckle. This indicates that the child in the poem, which is likely Theodore Roethke himself, is about 9 to 10 years of age. This means that Theodore Roethke was a child in the 1910s, before alcohols ban in the 1920s, and when drinking was much more …show more content…
He specifically uses the word “death” to describe how he hangs on, bringing to mind his father’s death. Then it says “such waltzing was not easy.” The waltzing was not easy because it could have been their last waltz, or their last time together. Even though his father died when he was 14 and this poem suggests he was about 10 at the time, they could have known about cancer for some time. I conclude that this was their last waltz because the first two lines in the next stanza, it further explains the waltz by saying “We romped until the pans/slid from the kitchen shelf.” Romped is a word that expresses joy and having fun. They romped until the pans slid from the kitchen shelf, which signifies the end of the fun. This is further supported when the mother suddenly frowns in the next two lines, which could never be undone--meaning she could never forget the father’s death. From there, the waltz becomes chaotic. It