Waltz

The poem, “My Papa’s Waltz” is based on a moment in life for a family. The father has had way too much to drink and seems to be taking it out on his son. “The whiskey on your breath / could make a small boy dizzy” (1-2). The father had drunk so much that the stench of whiskey made the boy feel the effects of the drink. “A primarily negative text portraying a “drunken father, angry mother, and desperate child” who have a “desperate hope” for some fun in the face of “a real fear of violence and…

Memory is the act of remembering. It is a conscious thought or recollection of experiences. Retrieving memory is not as simple process. “Rather, the remembering subject actively creates the meaning of the past in the act of remembering. Thus, narrated memory is an interpretation of a past that can never be full recovered.” (Smith) If a recounted memory is never going to be exact interpretation of the past, then memory is an intangible quality that can be explain through a number of ways. For…

“My Papa’s Waltz” The poem “My Papa’s Waltz” written by Theodore Roethke is a great poem to show an example of a child’s life. In this poem, the deepest love from the father to his son was a key part in “My Papa’s Waltz”. There is no love like a child’s love for his/her parent, it is the best ‘type’ of love out there. In this poem, Theodore Roethke uses great words to describe what is going on in their house as a family of three. Every word in the stanza’s in this poem are greatly worded and…

farther and child is nothing that could be replaced with someone else. Once the farther is in an unhealthy relationship with their child it is almost impossible to fix the damage if the farther ever tries to fix it. In the poems Daddy and My Papa’s Waltz it shows how unhealthy relationships with a farther and their children take a mental toll on the children weather they are beating them or just simply not putting effort and being loving towards their child, the damage is all the same. In the…

"Roethke's `My Papa's Waltz'." College Literature 17.1 (1990): 78. Academic Search Premier. Web. 14 Jan. 2017. Fong explains ‘’My Papa’s Waltz” as a seesaw balancing the elements of joy and fear. He claims Roethke depicted the fathers “mixture of tenderness and brutality” and the child’s “admiration and fear”. He includes the claims of different critics and how a reader’s personal experience with alcohol could influence their opinions. Janssen, Ronald R. "Roethke's MY PAPA's WALTZ."…

In the poem, My Papa’s Waltz, by Theodore Roethke is about a young man with emotions of fear and unconditional love for his father. The imperfections of his father has never seem to bother him instead he tried to make great memories out of it. This poem showed emotions of fear and love through word choice, imagery and metaphors. Theodore word choice brings mixed emotions into the poem and how boy feels towards his father. The words “death” (line 3) and “waltzing” (line 4) in the first quatrain…

In the poem, “My Papa’s Waltz”, the author, Theodore Roethke, recollects his youth and tangled emotions of fear and unconditional love from his father, who is characterized as brutal uncomfortable, and intoxicated, and a mother, who is unamused and disapproves of the father’s behavior. Roethke conveys a strong bond between a son and a father. Roethke shows a complex relationship with from son who feels frightened and at the same time joyful with his father. The reaction leads to a complicated…

The Analysis of the Three Poems “My Papa’s Waltz”, “My Father’s Hats” and “Those Winter Sundays” are poems which are real exciting and express the love of fathers towards their kids. In these poems they describe to us the friendship between children and their fathers. The poem “My Papa’s Waltz” explains how a young boy was dancing waltz music with his drunken father. The young son appeared to enjoy having fun with his father while dancing despite the fact that he kept on chafing his ear on his…

Comparing and contrast of “Those Winter Sundays” and “My Papa’s Waltz” In describing “Those Winter Sundays” by Robert Hayden and “My Papa’s Waltz” by Theodore Roethke we see that both are reflecting on a childhood experience with their fathers. There is a showing of compassion and understanding in both poems yet fear is also described. The speakers are reflecting back on a past childhood memory with their fathers but we do not understand if they are pleasant or resentment. Although they deal…

abusing the child. Although after further analysis of the poem it seems as though that is not the case. The poem doesn’t sound as though it was the happiest memory of the child’s life, but it wasn’t a memory he feared either. In the poem “My Papa’s Waltz” written by Theodore Roethke, the speaker’s experience seems to be a positive one based on the rhythm and word choice. The tone throughout the poem does not suggest hate or hostility, but instead has a rhyme scheme that has an even beat to it…