Preview

My Papa's Waltz Interpretation

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
390 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
My Papa's Waltz Interpretation
My Papa’s Waltz Interpretation

In My Papa’s Waltz the kid goes describes what it is like doing the waltz with his father. Their recollection seems to be something in between a positive and negative memory by having a change of mind in the middle of the poem. They discusses how their mother feels about the damage that they are causing, how the smell on their father’s breath smelt like whiskey, described what their father was like. Even though the kid was having fun the mother was not happy because they were wrecking the kitchen. The kid explains that it was a challenge to waltz when their dad when he had been drinking. They go into some detail about what the father was wearing and looked like.

The mother was unhappy because the child and

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Everyone grows up, leaving their childhood and their old life behind. When this happens, they will often look back on those happy times fondly, remembering how easy and nice it all was. In Theodore Roethke’s poem, “My Papa’s Waltz”, the speaker does just this. Nostalgically, he reflects upon a time when his father would waltz him around the house before taking him off to bed. Waltzing carelessly around the kitchen, clutching tightly to his inebriated, carefree father, knocking pans and pots down off the shelves, this is one of the prominent memories that the speaker has of his father. The poem reminisces on these times with his father, missing the time that they could dance together. The speaker’s father had his flaws, he had a job and wasn’t home as much, he…

    • 1109 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    "My Papa's Waltz" is one of most popular contemporary poems written by Theodore Roethke. The poem was first published in 1942 by Heast Magazines, Inc. from The Collected Poems of Theodore Roethke. It is a poem about a boy recalling a time with his father while they share a dance of waltz. This poem consists of four quatrains written in iambic trimeter with a simple rhyme scheme. It uses imagery, metaphors, and simile to invoke a strong impression. Each image captures an emotional richness all told from an innocent point of view of a child. At first glance, this poem has a tone of playfulness that captures the bond between father and son. Yet as one looks closely, the poem has a curious ambiguity that evokes multiple interpretations. The use of sardonic words to describe an affectionate moment is misleading and ultimately the readers are left to wonder whether the boy in the poem is suggesting some type of abuse or…

    • 882 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    My Papa's Waltz

    • 875 Words
    • 4 Pages

    The author of My Papa’s Waltz, Theodore Roethke, portrays the speaker of the poem’s childhood in a surprisingly dark, negative tone. At first glance, it appears to be an innocent story of a child who dances around one night with his silly, happily drunken father. However, a close reading and analysis of the poem will show that this is not the case. For example, the line “You beat time on my head” refers to the child being hit and smacked. This line has a very negative connotation when it is fully analyzed. What is really going on is that he his being abused by his angry drunken father. This is memorable because it is presented in a way in which it seems that the speaker feels he does not have permission to, or that he is unable to communicate…

    • 875 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The poem "My Papa's Waltz" by Theodore Roethke is a moving representation of childhood spent in a working middle class family. The speaker of this poem is a man recalling his childhood, his father and his mother through the means of a waltz. The following essay will present a detailed analysis of the dramatic situation and speaker through the explanations of the various poetic tools used in this poem such as similes, choice of words and style.…

    • 773 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Theodore Roethke’s poem “My Papa’s Waltz” illustrates a nightly ritual between a working-class father and his young son. In the first stanza a young boy holds tightly to his father. The second stanza describes a playful roughhousing between father and son. The fourth stanza shows again the boy’s unwillingness to let go of his father. Roethke’s AB rhyming scheme and waltz-like meter set a light and joyful cadence. The music of the waltz comes through in the reading and with it a carefree and innocent tone for the telling of the short amount of time between a hard-working father arriving home and the time when his son must go to bed.…

    • 744 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    My Papa Waltz

    • 599 Words
    • 3 Pages

    In the poem “My Papa Waltz” Written by Theodore Roethke, a young child is running around the house following and playing with the drunkard of a dad. The child can smell the whiskey on his breath but continues to cling tightly as the child does not want to stop playing. This scuffling shakes and rattles the pans in the kitchen frustrating the mom as she is annoyed with her drunk of a husband. Bedtime has approached so the child is then carried to bed still clinging to the fathers’ shirt. Roethke uses irony, symbolism, and imagery to portray how forgiving a child’s love can be.…

    • 599 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Theodore Roethke wrote many poems about his father, “My Papa’s Waltz” is one particular poem that is still the source of much debate, both in college classrooms and among established literary critics. Initially, the poem appears to be a young boys fond recollection of a dance with a tipsy, but loving father. Many who read it strongly disagree, and feel that the tone is much more severe, and alludes to a drunken and abusive father. To clarify this argument, one must closely analyze the syntax, and search for the true intent of Roethke’s careful chosen words. Upon close examination, the poem seems to convey an intriguing ambiguity that lends itself to both arguments.…

    • 877 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    My Papa's Waltz Theme

    • 102 Words
    • 1 Page

    In “My Papa’s Waltz”, Theodore Roethke portrays a father-son relationship that proves to be often brutal. The author uses enjambment within the poem to show the negative effects after actions; along with the metaphors describing the father and the beatings. For example, the boy would feel how “his right ear scraped a buckle” to the failures “at every step ‘you’ missed”. However, deep down in his heart, the boy loves his father. He describes him as a poor man whose “hand...was battered on one knuckle”. The hand was also “caked hard by dirt”, showing how he was hardworking enough to deserve pity.…

    • 102 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    There is a shift from the third stanza to the fourth stanza which is clearly seen with the colon on the last line, “…to woundlike memories:” (l. 12). The shift is from the speaker observing the boy getting whipped to remembering something in his or her past. The colon indicates that the next stanza is about a painful memory and the ellipsis in line 18 indicates the end of the memory. However since an ellipsis is chosen as the punctuation the reader can infer that there is more to be said. The fourth stanza uses the personal pronoun “my” which can make the reader feel as if they are in the speakers place. This recollection the speaker has included harsh words such as, “wrench, writhing and struggle” which can help the reader feel the pain of the speaker. This can result into the reader feeling empathy. My Papa’s Waltz does not have any clear shifts in the poem. The poem in general seems to have two sides to it which affects the reader’s perspective. Feelings of empathy can be produced in the reader but it is not done…

    • 683 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In his story, My Papa’s waltz, Theodore Roethke examines the relationship between a father and son. The essay describes the daily interactions between the two. Some people may consider the relationship to be abusive, while others see it as a loving relationship with a little bit of roughhousing. The relationship between the father and son in this poem is seen as loving and fun.…

    • 588 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Relationships are very complex. To an outsider looking in, it may appear to be an unhealthy, or maybe even an abusive relationship, when in actuality it is a healthy relationship. Sure, the relationship may be different, but still it remains a healthy relationship which is what is important. This describes the relationship between the father and the son in the poem “My Papa’s Waltz.” On the surface, the father appears to be a drunk, and the kid, somewhat skittish, or scared around him; however, one must dig deeper than the surface level to be able to comprehend and appreciate the love shared between the father and the son in this poem. Through the use of literary devices such as extended metaphors and similes, the reader can see that the…

    • 1523 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    My Papa's Waltz Tone

    • 308 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The poem My Papa’s Waltz describes a child’s nostalgia towards his conflicted relationship with his father. In this poem the tone of the speaker is characterized by the deep devotion and love he felt towards his father during his youth. Looking back on the time his father spent playing with him when he was a child, the speaker describes “[hanging] on like death” and “clinging to [his] shirt” (Roethke 3,16).…

    • 308 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    While reading and reading “My Papa’s Waltz” poem, I have the conclusion that they were not waltzing that all, as the poem says they are. The father moves from side to side like waltzing, but in reality, it is for his drunkenness. He can’t keep standing by himself and has his child dealing with his alcoholism condition with an abhor smell of alcohol. I can easily perceive the child’s feelings and his sadness, if instead of being and spend a good time with his father, the child is experiencing somehow abandon of his selfish father going home drunk and thus he is cumulating his family hatred and shame. I can conclude and observe this for the simple reason that the alcohol involved. Furthermore, where there is an uncontrollable consumption of alcohol,…

    • 171 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    But gracefulness does not matter here--the father earns gratitude for being loose, goofy, and carefree. The child is delighted by this roughhouse activity and is even "clinging" in the last line, unwilling to let go. The father's waltzing is like a carnival ride, requiring the young one to hold on "like death. " This may be the highpoint of the child's day.…

    • 439 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The father in “My Papa’s Waltz” is destroying the future of this family their future will be destroyed by the child not being able to go to college by wasting almost all of his wage on alcohol. The child has a large chance to turn out to be the same as him, then the chain will continue on to future…

    • 61 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays

Related Topics