What Is The Interpretation Of My Papa's Waltz

The poem, My Papa’s Waltz written by Theodore Roethke could be interpreted in two extreme ways. I interpreted the poem with a very negative undertone. When reading the title one can assume that the story will be told from a point of view from a child talking about dancing with his father. Just by seeing that, the scene is set and there is no sense of negativity in the following lines.
Immediately from reading the title, the reader is made aware that the speaker of the poem will most likely be a young child. We are then reassured in the second line of the poem that the speaker is indeed a young boy. Children are usually very naive and unaware of when their parents are struggling through a hard time.This child on the other hand knew that there was something not right with his father. When “the whiskey on [his] breath [made him] dizzy; [he] hung on like death”. Although the boy did not seem too scared of what his father was
Some of the lines do not have three beats and that can represent the father drunkenly missing a step, as each beat has a step. The relation between the meter of the poem and the title contradicted my interpretation of the poem. A waltz is defined as a ballroom and folk dance with an uplifting beat. This rhythm of this poem is anything but uplifting. One would interpret the dancing as a fun and games; but when the child talks about being “scraped” and “beat” the only thing that comes to mind is pure abuse.
Clearly, My Papa’s Waltz could have been interpreted in many different ways. The way I saw it was that the father was an abusive drunk. He did not care for his son and unfortunately his son was well aware of that. The author used the theme of dancing and the meter to connect them to each other. The “waltz” was more like the father stumbling around the room and his innocent son was unfortunately there to watch it all