The Last Waltz

In Roethke’s “My Papa’s Waltz” one can say it is a beautiful dance between a father and a son before bed time or even past bed time. The son gets to spend time with his dad every night. To a child anytime spent with his father is a memory the boy will always have. The little boy looks up to his father. A father loves his son very much, maybe even breaking some rules to spend time with him. The father dances around the kitchen with his son. The poem states that the father has a heavy dose of…

Readers of poetry usually understand that interpreting a poem often fosters disagreement. Theodore Roethke’s poem, “My Papa’s Waltz,” for example, generates frequent debate about the situation. This poem illustrates harmless play between a hard-working father and his young son. Not everyone who reads “My Papa’s Waltz” believes that the father is innocent and hard-working. There are many lines in the poem that can be portrayed in different ways. In the first stanza line three, “but I hung on…

The Castle (1997), directed by Rob Sitch and Strictly Ballroom (1992), directed by Baz Luhrman both succeed in displaying the idea of Australian dreamers. They both to show that Australia is a land where working hard can make dreams come true. Scott, from Strictly Ballroom, dreams to win the Pan Pacific’s, and more importantly, to dance his own steps. Darryl, The Castle, just wants to keep living his simple life in his house with his family. While both ideals and characters vastly contrast, they…

Hidden Messages “My Papa’s Waltz” by Theodore Roethke is a very mysterious and ambiguous poem. The speaker reminisces on a memory of himself as a young boy with his father. Several readers get multiple impressions of the poem, and find themselves feeling puzzled about what the poem is truly about. The poem is very controversial with the vocabulary being used by the speaker, and there are many interpretations that readers can get from it. The poem demonstrates imagery and metaphors to describe…

Papa’s Waltz by Theodore Roethke, the article Coming of Age Whether They like it or Not by Megan Rubiner Zinn, the novel Coach Wooden and Me by Kareem Abdul Jabbar, and my personal connection would playing sports or working while enjoying both it all comes down to choose one, all show coming of age through a common theme of making hard decisions that help their future decisions. The connection between the two is coming of age by helping one achieve what they want, a bribe. In “My papa’s waltz”…

The early Greeks developed order and form within dance that was called choral dance. It was a more communal form where the lines of dancers would move circularly or straight within ranks. These dances would be performed at events such as Athenian festivals and were accompanied by procession, sacrifices and games. The Greeks would also dance at religious ceremonies; they would perform fertility dances to ensure fertile fields as well as fertile women. They would dance in preparation for war and…

The storyline of the poem, “My Papa’s Waltz” by Theodore Roethke, goes way deeper than just dancing, but a negative vibe that shows abuse. For example, in the first stanza, it states, “The whiskey on your breath could make a young boy dizzy”. This explaining the man who is considered the papa, had too many drinks that would be considered drunk. Another line in the same stanza it says, “ But I hung on like death”. What person would be scared to dance with their father? Unless it wasn’t dancing…

In “My Papa’s Waltz” by Theodore Roethke, the interpretation of the poem depends on the readers perspective. It is a great poem that can mean many different things to many different people. Some people think that this poem is one of a happy exchange between a father and son. Other people believe that this poem has a hidden message of parental abuse. The imagery and language, the symbols and tone in the poem gave me the impression of the love between the father and son, not of an abusive…

“The whiskey on your breath could make a small boy dizzy; but I hung on like death: such waltzing was not easy.” Says Theodore Roethke from the short story “Under the influence” a sentimental and hot- blooded story by Scott Russell Sanders.revolves around the son of drunken father, a boy that felt insufficient and weak. “A man consumed by disease rather than by disappointment” an endless journey down the path of a drug- a drug that took the life of his father. Affected by the lies that clouded…

Dancing and sports are fun activities that have been practiced for centuries around the world. The Oxford Dictionary defines a sport as, “an activity involving physical exertion and skill in which an individual or team competes against another or others for entertainment”. By using this definition, many would consider dance to be named a sport. However, society labels all dance styles as a club or extracurricular activity. At first glance, dancers would say dance should be named a sport. But on…