Hills 1 Beverly Hills Jordan Simpson English 101 25 July 2013 A Memory of a Lifetime The poem‚ “My Papa’s Waltz‚” by Theodore Roethke is about a childhood memory written later in the adult narrator’s lifetime with his father. This poem reveals the relationship between the narrator and his father when they were waltzing about the room when he was still a small boy. This poem creates what appears to be
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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
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of “My Papa’s Waltz” Ambiguity is an element that poets use to interpret something in more than one way. Ambiguity makes a poem strong and weak at the same time because ambiguous tones make people think‚ ambiguity also enables different interpretations of the theme. “My papa’s waltz” by Theodore Roethke’s is an example of a poem with ambiguity. The unidentified persona and the use of diction create conflicting perspectives. An ambiguous tone is used in Theodore Roethke’s “My papa’s waltz” to humanize
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The memory described in "My Papa’s Waltz" is mostly positive. The poem is about a specific type of dance‚ which is established thrice: by the title as well as lines 4 and 15. The father waltzed with his child at bedtime‚ a spirited attempt to bring elegance into a humble home. Waltzing is often associated with royalty‚ emperors dancing in palaces to the music of Johann Strauss II‚ good living! The verb "romped" in the second stanza is strong evidence that this was a playful activity for both father
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Personal Narrative In my life‚ I have met certain people who have changed me for the better and have helped shape me into who I am today. A lot of those people have left but one that has always stood by my side and sticks out in my mind is my favorite person in the whole world‚ who happens to be my Papa. He has been there for me since day one‚ literally. He was the second person to hold me as in infant‚ after my mother. People like him don’t come around everyday. He is the most genuine person you
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Creative Analysis: “My Papa’s Waltz: The Sequel” As reader-response critics have long noted‚ opening up discussions of a poem to accommodate multiple interpretations can reveal striking things about how individual readers’ assumptions and cultural positions affect their understanding of what they read. “My Papa’s Waltz: The Sequel‚” a poem that expands Theodore Roethke’s poem‚ My Papa’s Waltz‚ better supports the original poem’s theme of mourning a beloved father as opposed to what some believe
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"My Papa’s Waltz" by Theodore Roethke is a four quatrain poem written in iambic trimeter. The rhyme scheme present is abab‚ cdcd‚ efef‚ and ghgh. In the poem‚ the son is remembering a time when his father‚ who was excessively drunk at the time‚ carrying him through the kitchen off to bed. It was a rough‚ almost abusive‚ journey though because his father‚ who is already drunkenly waltzing him‚ is probably not used to handling things with care at work since his hands are described as "caked hard by
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In “My Papa’s Waltz”‚ American poet Theodore Roethke transforms the horrid experience of a child being beaten by his father into the romantic and beautiful dance of a waltz. Written in trecet iambs to imitate the relaxing beat of the waltz‚ the poet installs some sense of pleasure in the reader. In doing so‚ Roethke makes the subject of a beating more readable and lessening the effect of the drunkenness makes the speaker’s father more forgivable. The lucidity of diction and imagery throughout Roethke’s
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As I listened to “My Papa’s Waltz” being read aloud I felt a connection to it; a connection that I did not feel when I read it to myself. When I heard the poem aloud I was able to connect it my own life and the drunken “waltz” of a hard working father taking his son to bed. The performance added to the poem because it brought the words to life. I am a hearing learner so listen to the poem made it easier for me to comprehend it. However the performance did not change my perception of the poem
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create his own style to show the world that habits‚ such as war can be broken even if it is in the past. He also used this poem to show order and disorder in the world. He used the waltz to do this‚ the father and son waltz‚ but the son struggle which brings to life the daily struggles for the son to keep up. The waltz was an organized dance in an unorganized life of a young boy. Roethke’s purpose in writing the poem “The Lost Son” was more to delve into his subconscious of when he was a child.
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