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 whiskey on his breath (“The whisky on your Breath / could make a small boy dizzy”). This could possibly be due to the father having a rough or stressful job. When he arrives home he likes to release the tension by having a glass of whiskey as he enjoys…

and good for the soul. We get to visit with our loved ones, who are no longer with us, or those far away. In the poem “My Papa’s Waltz” written by Theodore Roethke, the speaker, reminisces back to his childhood with his father. The speaker reflects—through the rhythm, word choice, theme, and tone—on the ritual of the special nightly bedtime waltz that father and son…

The relationship between the father and son in “My papas waltz” is one that some people in the world can relate to. The son in the poem goes to state, “the whiskey on your breath”, which is referring to the overwhelming smell of alcohol coming off his father. He is intoxicated; furthermore, the father seems quite abusive to the son, especially when he is under the influence (Roethke, 687). However, to the son, it is quite a normal act. Even though what the son is going through is a horrible…

In the poem Papa’s Waltz it was a story about a father and son bond. While I was read in the poem I found some evidence about the father was abusive to his son like in the beginning of the poem when the father came home drunk off of whiskey, on line 1 and 2 they could almost lead father to be violence to his son because he was drunk then I read line 3 when it talking about ‘’death’’ example the hung on like death and how could it be a lovely poem about a father and son relationship but I see in…

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…

Theodore Roethke's poem My Papa's Waltz depicts a unique portrayal of a father from a child's point of view. The words in his poem bring to life a memory that he is clearly fond of and are written in such a way that the audience will be able to have a glimpse into his experience as a child. Roethke's recollection of a child's experience presents vivid imagery that lends the audience the opportunity to make assumptions about the author's father. Through the vivid images that Roethke's lines…

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 happy family is a myth for many.” Carolyn Spring. In “My Papa’s Waltz”, it may sound like a loving father and daughter dancing around the kitchen at first. But in reality, the author uses a lot of word choices that show there is an underlying theme to the poem. Violent words and phrases fill the poem in subtle ways to prove that some kids do fear their alcoholic parents. The first lines of the poem are “The whiskey on your breath could make a small boy dizzy,” indicating that the…

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…

In Theodore Roethke “My Papa’s Waltz” poem, readers will find one of two stories. The story of a hard-working, affectionate father or an abusive one that drinks too much. The interpretation depends solely on the readers’ perspective. The speaker is reflecting on a childhood memory involving his father. The speaker describes a beautiful but dangerous game that he and his father played as a child. Where the father would pick him up, strap him in his boots and dance with him all throughout the…