Waltz

While the subject of “My Papa’s Waltz” by Theodore Roethke has spurred passionate academic debate from professors, scholars, and students alike, the imagery, syntax, and diction of the poem clearly support the interpretation that Roethke writes “My Papa’s Waltz” to describe the relationship between him and his father, and a memory they shared together. Roethke made the poem sound as if had two completely different meaning behind it. For example, it can mean that a father and his child are…

My Papa's Waltz In the poem my “ My Papa’s Waltz”, written by Theodore Roethke is sought to show a grief emotion of sorrow that the narrator is experiencing with his father. He provides hints and uses imagery and personification to conceal the truth about what is occurring in his life. Although, the poem may sound simple and easy to understand “ My Papa’s Waltz” is really a complex narrative of parental love and abuse. As, the story is being told he incorporates a song that has a beautiful…

Roethke’s “My Papa’s Waltz” is a poem that contradicts itself as a whole many times. When reading it, there are two contrasting ideas that can be visualized. He uses certain words that are playful while also using words that have a clearly negative connotation to tell this story between a father and son. Other times, there is ambiguity in the phrases he chooses. Even the rhythm of the poem can have different meanings to different people. It all depends on which words stand out to the reader.…

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…

Imagine it, a hardworking father coming home to his son after a long day and playing with him, dancing the night away. On the surface, that is what the poem, “My Papa’s Waltz,” is about but a closer look at Roethke’s choice of words, the poem’s imagery, emotions, and irony reveals a painful and probably confusing encounter between a boy and his drunken father. The poem shows how some things that are bad can be described as good. Many people believe that Theodore Roethke was the small boy in the…

Theodore Roethke’s poem “My Papa’s Waltz” is an interesting poem because of the different ways it can be interpreted. While there are many ways readers interpret the poem, the two extremes usually lie between an alcoholic father abusing his son and a loving father playfully rough housing with his son. However, when I read and interpreted the poem for myself, my optimistic tendencies at first lead me to read the poem with the brighter meaning in mind, but as I kept reading my perception of the…

I have read Theodore Roethke’s poem “My Papa’s Waltz” several times, and every I tend to find new insights in it. It is the same old story where a father comes home drunk and mistreats his family. That’s what a reader would think after one reading of it. I expressed I can relate to the son and father’s relationship, along with some of the emotions expressed in the poem. As any poem that you read, it can interpret something different or the same depending on the reader. In the first stanza where…

Roethke poem, “My Papa’s Waltz”, presents a father and son spending quality time together after coming home from a day of work. As the small boy interacts with his dad, the smell of whisky coming off his dad’s breath could make the boy dizzy. They romped around the kitchen while the mother’s face could not unfrown itself. As the wrestling and aggravation come to a waltzing to the bed, the small boy clings to his dad’s shirt not wanting to leave his dad. “My Papa’s Waltz” presents a man…

My Papa's Waltz depicts a family picture also shows the happiness of a family union; it points out a full of responsibility, positive, and the rough image of a father. In this poem, the author recalls the fragments of his childhood with his father; it is also an expression of the author on the death of his father's nostalgia. My Papa's Waltz has a profound meaning. As we know that the waltz is a solemn, elegant, colorful dance. At that time, it could be said to be a kind of aristocratic…

“My Papa’s Waltz” Author Theodore Roethke wrote “My Papa’s Waltz”. Is a poem where the father is introduced as papa, and son is helping the father once more as they reenact the waltz through the house because he has been drinking too much. The son, and father have a close relationship because he doesn’t call him dad or “father” like most do. The young boy calls him “papa” in the poem as he helps him through the kitchen. Since papa is drunk again, the mom who is also there does not help him, and…