Love in My Papa's Waltz, Facts, Night Driving, Those Winter Sundays, Digging, and Daddy I have elected to analyze seven poems spoken by a child to its parent. Despite a wide variety of sentiments, all share one theme: the deep and complicated love between child and parent. The first poem, "My Papa's Waltz," by Theodore Roethke (Page 18) presents a clear picture of the young man's father, from line one. "Whiskey" on the father's breath is one of many clues in appearance that mold a rough image of this uneducated, blue-collar worker, possibly a European immigrant, as indicated by the "Waltz" in the title (Line 1). These traits are not necessarily related. They merely exist at once in the father's character. Additional signs of roughness are his hand, "battered on one knuckle"(11), and "a palm caked hard by dirt"(14). This is a man who has probably known only grueling labor. His few escapes likely consist of a drink or two when he gets home from a tough day and maybe something good on the radio. This idea of the father as an unrefined oaf is further reinforced by his actions. His missed steps injure the child's ear, while the father and son's "romping" causes the pans to slide "from the kitchen shelf"(6). As he "beat[s] time"(13) on the child's head we see very clearly that he is quite brutish and careless with the child, and oblivious to his environment. All these factors make the boy's mother very uncomfortable. We can see the disapproval in her countenance, which "could not unfrown itself"(8). She is obviously upset but, strangely, does nothing to interfere with the horseplay that grieves her. This suggests that the waltz is enjoyable for not only one, but both parties. One might wonder why it is that the boy so delights in these moments. This is obviously a crude, boorish man. He probably doesn't flush. He may even smell bad. Are these reasons to love one's father less? Certainly not in the eyes of a small boy. This young man's father may not be the most sensitive or perceptive man around, but he still seems to be a hero in the eyes of his son. Finally, the son recalls these words: "Then you waltzed me off to bed/ Still clinging to your shirt"(16). After reading this poem, it is clear just how unconditional a child's love is.
Abuse is a difficult and sensitive subject that can have long lasting effects. These traumatic emotional effects are often intensified if the abuse happens at a young age because children do not understand why the abuse is happening or how to deal with it. There are many abuse programs set up to counter the severe effects which abuse can have. Even more, poets and writers all over the world contribute works that express the saddening events and force the public to realize it is much more real than the informative articles we read about. One such poem is Theodore Roethke’s My Papa’s Waltz which looks carefully through the eyes of a young boy into the household of an abusive father. Robert Hayden’s Those Winter Sundays is a similar poem from the perspective of a young adult reflecting back on the childhood relationship with his father and the abuse his father inflicted. These poems are important because they deal with the complex issues surrounding the subject of abuse and also show the different ways which children react to it. My Papa’s Waltz and Those Winter Sundays are similar poems because they use tone, imagery, and sounds and rhythms to create tension between the negative aspects of abuse and the boys own love and understanding for their father.
The poem "My Papa's Waltz" uses imagery by especially appealing to the sense of touch. The sense of touch also helps the reader to better understand the abusive father theme. The third stanza concentrates on the actual act of abuse. The author, Roethke, describes the battle wounds on the father and son that are inflicted by the father. The father's hand "was battered on one knuckle" from hitting his son with a belt (10). This is apparent because the son's "right ear scraped...
He came up from almost nothing in a poor immigrant home of Italian decent. His mother and father were working class citizens. Capone began using the Italian heritage at a young age with a slight twist of dastardly aggressiveness. Being kicked out of school at an early age from assault of a teacher then joining a gang was the future for Capone. Torrio left all his work in the hands of Capone, and Al did not disappoint. He was successful in making money. Prohibition alcohol, gambling, prostitution, speakeasy’s, and hits were just a few tactics of his reign in Chicago during the roaring twenties. With his attitude and ability to practically decide who will win elections made him so fearful, and if you ever crossed him you were due to payment for ticking him off. Valentine’s Day and the small-thug are just two examples of the raw decisions of Capone to commit murder. There is no possible answer to the amount of killings Capone is responsible for. Al Capone was finally caught after all the chaos and killing in 1931 where he would serve in Alcatraz and in Baltimore until returning to Miami where he would dance with the devil one last time. The notorious Al Capone never died in Chicago as the Chiraq still ran wild. Al Capone is one of Americas most famous gangsters from the prohibition era and will rest knowing that he is a symbol for modern destruction of law and order
"My Papa 's Waltz," by Theodore Roethke 's, is a poem about a boy who expresses his affection for his father, but at the same time expresses a sense of danger that comes from the father. The poem appears to be a snapshot in time from a child’s memory. The uplifting experience is created through the father and son’s waltz while the father’s uncontrollable movements juxtaposes the menace of the drunken father.
Al Capone was born in 1899 in Brooklyn,Newyork. He moved to Chicago in 1920 to join the gang to make some money. He had a wife name mae capone who will stick with Al Capone side while he does illeagl crime to make some money for him and his wife. And he was invited to the gang in Chicago and work for them to earn the money.
Al Capone was a criminal who did what he had to do to make it to the top and stay there. He didn’t care about who he killed because he caused hundreds of deaths and he didn’t care about who he had to strike a deal with because he corrupted many, he really didn’t care about the law because he broke it for a decade by bootlegging. Between the mobsters, bootlegging, murder, and corruption, he was brought to justice by tax evasion. Capone was just a relentless criminal.
Most of Al Capone’s life seems unreal, but it is true. It all started when he was born on January 17, 1899, in Brooklyn, New York. He was baptized Alphonsus Capone. As the fourth oldest of nine children, he didn’t receive much attention. “At birth, Capone's parents never would have believed that their son Alphonse would grow up to be a murderous thug without remorse. (The Encyclopedia of World Crime 603)” Capone was very wise when it came to living on the streets of New York. He was a genius when it came to street smarts. As far as school goes, Capone was almost illiterate. He came from a poverty stricken neighborhood in Brooklyn, so education was not a top priority. Capone was forced to either deal with a low wage job with a hopeless future or make an improvement for himself by committing crime. “Al Capone's philosophy was to the effect that laws only applied to people who had enough money to abide by them. (The Mafia Encyclopedia 603)”
Al Capone was a notorious gangster in Chicago during the years of Prohibition. He came to power when his partner and mentor, Johnny Torrio, fled Chicago for Italy fearing death threats. Torrio left Capone in charge to run a massive bootlegging, prostitution, gambling, and extortion business that made about $100,000,000 annually. Since these activities that Capone conducted were extremely illegal, Capone managed to bribe or blackmail officials to keep himself and his men out of jail. The government had a very difficult time trying to capture Capone because of his power, celebrity status, and money. After years of trying to catch Capone and send him to jail, the government finally succeeded. Instead of arresting Capone on accounts of murder, bootlegging, gambling, prostitution, extortion, etc. the government arrested him due to tax evasion. Despite its efforts, the United States Government did not do enough to stop Al Capone from terrorizing the city of Chicago during Prohibition.
My Papa’s Waltz has been compared to a generational litmus test. Depending on what generation the reader was born, could determine how the reader would interpret this poem. Each generation has its own views that have been developed in them for the language used to describe Papa in this poem. The whiskey on his breath and Papa’s hand beating on his head, both sound like a negative connotation. Depending on the experience of the reader, they can either be disturbed by these words or be drawn in closer to the poem. Theodore Roethke loved his father. Not only did he love him, but he idolized him and unfortunately lost him at an early age. This poem is a reflective memorial waltz written in iambic trimeter to honor his father and mother.
There is no greater bond then a boy and his father, the significant importance of having a father through your young life can help mold you to who you want to become without having emotional distraught or the fear of being neglected. This poem shows the importance in between the lines of how much love is deeply rooted between these two. In a boys life he must look up to his father as a mentor and his best friend, the father teaches the son as much as he can throughout his experience in life and build a strong relationship along the way. As the boy grows up after learning everything his father has taught him, he can provide help for his father at his old-age if problems were to come up in each others
January 17th, 1899 was when Al Capone was born. After his parents emigrated from Naples, Italy, he was raised in Brooklyn, New York. He was the fourth child of of nine. Capone got into a fight with one of his teachers in the 6th grade and never returned to school. While he was in the James Street Gang, Al Capone met his lifetime friend, Johnny Torrio. Al Capone was slashed on the cheek with a razor when he got into a brawl, working as a bouncer for a Brooklyn Saloon. This brawl left him with a scar that was three jagged marks, which stayed hairless and pale. This is how he got his famous nickname,
“My Papa’s Waltz” by Theodore Roethke is a poem that illustrates the love and bonding between a father and child through structure, figurative language, imagery, symbolism, and diction. The poem begins with lines making it seem negative, violent, and maybe even hate. However it was really his use of figurative language to show them bonding and having fun. In the first quatrain it says the father has whiskey breath, enough to make a child dizzy, so the child hangs on like “death”, because it was hard for him to waltz. At a first glance this may seem negative because of the whiskey and the author's choice of words like death. Although it is not negative. The father may have had a whiskey breath but it doesn't state he was drunk, and him hanging on like death may sound horrific, but he has to hold on to him so he is inescapable as death because it is
Al Capone was one of America’s biggest and most powerful gangsters in the roaring 20’s. Capone owned the city of Chicago, including everything from the cops to the thugs of this crime filled city. He had ownership of almost all speakeasies, prostitution rackets, gambling houses, distilleries, breweries, and racetracks in the city. Capone was the main source of crime in Chicago. Al Capone’s influence reached every aspect of life in Chicago due to the wealth, power, and ownership he had acquired.
Unemployed people did not care that the money he gave them was made illegally, to them money was money. Capone also supplied booze to the poor. “Even though bootlegging was illegal at this point in time, if you got people alcohol, you were respected by the community”(Kobler). People were in the depres...
He was a part of what we call today the Mafia. At Al’s prime he made around $100,000,000 dollars a year. All of his organized crime and bootlegging really made him rich. Quitting school at age 14 would not affect him much. As you can tell Capone still continued to be successful man. Capone married a girl name Mary Coughlin. They had a few children together. Al was a very family oriented man and loved seeing his family. John Torrio was Capone’s boss before Capone became top dog. Torrio was killed by an assassin. Once Torrio was dead Capone became the leader of the Mafia. Al Capone lived up through the 30s and died of old age. He was always very cautious for his own life. Al would have bodyguards everywhere he went. This man was a huge part of prohibition and