What Is Theodore Roethke My Papa's Waltz Analysis

Published in 1948, Theodore Roethke’s “My Papa’s Waltz” has had many readers questioning the motive of the poem. Many people see his poem as a story of a drunk father’s violence toward his son, showing what we would call child abuse. Others see it as a cherished memory Roethke has of a loving drunk father playing with his son. Both of these accusations can be valid, depending on what part of history you choose to start your “evidence” with, and how you perceive each line of his poem. In 1948, child abuse, which was not a common term, was seen as a way to teach your child respect or to “become a man”. Many people, who sense child abuse in “My Papa’s Waltz”, believe that Roethke is trying to speak out against child abuse, before it was a real …show more content…
The people who believe that the poem is about child abuse, believe “the central image in the poem is the metaphor in which the beatings are described as a waltz” (“Theodore Roethke’s “My Papa’s Waltz”: Summary & Analysis”). Others believe the father is just dancing around with his son in a playful manner. The son, who was probably 6 or 7, could smell the whisky on his father’s breath, which means that the father was within a couple of inches of the small boy. Some people believe that Roethke wrote the line “We hung on like death” to show that “the boy will love his father to end; although, a great bitterness remains in the memory” (“Theodore Roethke’s “My Papa’s Waltz”: Summary & Analysis”), due to the beatings. Others believe that he hung on to his father, who is probably swaying due to being drunk, so that he could continue to waltz with him. “Such waltzing was not easy” (Roethke) suggests that if ‘waltzing’ means beatings, then the son is in pain and can barely withstand them. It could also be that since the father is drunk, trying to stay with him as he waltzed around could be almost …show more content…
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These last two stanzas could either show the reader how violent the father is, or a memory from Roethke’s childhood. It says that his hand “Was battered on one knuckle” (Roethke), which could mean that his father might get into a lot of fights or could be battered just from hitting his son earlier. It also talks about a belt scraping his ear when he misses. This could mean that the son gets whipping with his father’s belt and since his father is drunk, he misses and instead hits his ear. This would be a cruel way to abuse a child and would cause lots of pain. They also see “You beat time on my head” (Roethke) as a sign of physical abuse instead of making time on a drum. The other theory is that this is a memory of Roethke’s childhood. “His father was a German immigrant who owned and ran a 25-acre greenhouse” (“Theodore Roethke”). If his father owned a greenhouse, then he probably worked in the dirt digging or cutting. His hands could have gotten battered up from working. What supports this evidence even more is the fact that Roethke says “With a palm caked hard by dirt” (Roethke) in the last