Today, people tend to believe that hitting a person is abuse. Although, many people can connect with ¨My Papaś Waltz¨ by Theodore Roethke, the intended audience is himself illustrating a past memory of his childhood. The controversy of the poem is whether itś a good or bad memory. While the subject of “My Papa’s Waltz” has spurred a passionate academic debate from professors, scholars, and students alike, the imagery, syntax, and diction of the poem clearly supports the interpretation that Theodore Roethke wrote “My Papa’s Waltz” to illustrate on a past memory of his drunk and abusive father. For example, his use of negative imagery suggest that he has a drunk father. Hence in the first two lines of the poem. “ The whiskey on your breath …show more content…
He uses the words like “battered” and “scraped” to give the poem a dark and serious tone. In fact, he uses the words “countenance” and “unfrown” in the line “ My mother’s countenance could not unfrown itself.” to illustrate how upset his mother is. In addition, he used the word “death” to illustrate in the line “ But I hung on like death.” that he is holding onto his father, with no plan to let go. To hold on like “death” his father would have to be moving excessively for him to hold on that tight. We can insist from the last two lines of the first and second stanza that he is hitting one of them. With this you can conclude that his father is abusive. Ultimately, the subject of “ My Papa’s Waltz” has spurred a passionate academic debate from professors, scholars, and students alike, the imagery, syntax, diction of the poem clearly support the interpretation that Theodore Roethke wrote “ My Papa’s Waltz” to illustrate on a past memory of his drunk and abusive father. The controversy of the poem itself is whether it is a good or bad memory. The use of negative imagery, syntax, and diction support this. Overall, with the explanation of the poem and the use of syntax, diction and imagery “ My Papa’s Waltz” was about Theodore Roethke’s drunk and abusive
The most notable qualities of Theodore Roethke’s “My Papa’s Waltz” are the tone and language of the poem which convey the nostalgia adult author feels thinking about the time spent with his father. In the title narrator’s father is affectionately referred to as “Papa” making the impression that the main character and his father are close. The use of possessive pronoun “my” contributes to the overall impression that the father holds special place in the narrator’s heart. As word “waltz” in the title implies the poem gives account of the festive occasion in which the narrator’s father takes part.
The events of our childhood and interactions with our parents is an outline of our views as parents ourselves. Although Robert Hayden’s relationship with his father differentiates from the relationship of Theodore Roethke and his father, they are both pondering back to their childhood and expressing the events in a poem. “My Papa’s Waltz” and “Those winter Sundays” provide the reader with an image of a childhood event which states how fathers are being viewed by their children. These poems reflect upon the relationship of the father and child when the child was a youth. Both Roethke and Hayden both indicate that their fathers weren’t perfect although they look back admiringly at their fathers’ actions. To most individuals, a father is a man that spends time with and takes care of them which gains him love and respect. An episode of Roethke’s childhood is illustrated in “My Papa’s Waltz”. In “My Papa’s Waltz”, the father comes home showing signs of alcohol and then begins waltzing with his son. Roethke states that the father’s hands are “battered on one knuckle”. The mother was so upset about the dancing that she did nothing other than frown. At the end of the day, the father waltzed the son to bed. “Those Winter Sundays” is based on a regular Sunday morning. The father rises early to wake his family and warm the house. To warm the house, he goes out in the cold and splits wood to start a fire. This is a poem about an older boy looking back to his childhood and regretting that “No one ever thanked him.” In Those Winter Sundays'; by Robert Hayden, the poet also relinquishes on a regular occurrence in his childhood. On Sunday mornings, just as any other morning, his father rises early and puts on his clothes in the cold darkness. He ...
"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.
Not only the words, but the figures of speech and other such elements are important to analyzing the poem. Alliteration is seen throughout the entire poem, as in lines one through four, and seven through eight. The alliteration in one through four (whisky, waltzing, was) flows nicely, contrasting to the negativity of the first stanza, while seven through eight (countenance, could) sound unpleasing to the ear, emphasizing the mother’s disapproval. The imagery of the father beating time on the child’s head with his palm sounds harmful, as well as the image of the father’s bruised hands holding the child’s wrists. It portrays the dad as having an ultimate power over the child, instead of holding his hands, he grabs his wrists.
Alcoholics have a tendency to damage everything they come in contact with. In the poem “My Papa's Waltz” by Theodore Roethke, the speaker is constantly stepped on and overpowered by his abusive alcoholic father, leaving him helpless and unable to defend himself. Roethke constructs metaphors and rough imagery to emphasize and connect with the reader his emotions towards his abusive relationship his father forces him to participate in every night.
Everyone sees the world according to his or her own experiences. In the same way, poetry can be read and understood according to the experiences of the reader. Theodore Roethke, a poet-in-residence at the University of Washington, who was educated at both Harvard and Michigan University, wrote a poem titled “My Papa’s Waltz”. When reading My Papa’s Waltz, readers tend to have the perspective that the poem was either about a father who was abusive, or simply a happy memory of a father rough-housing his son. After analysis, the strongest evidence in the diction and the tone conveys that the poem is about the confusion a son feels over the drunken abusive behavior exhibited by his father.
Theodore Roethke was a famous poet in mid-century America. He was born in Michigan to Helen and Otto Roethke. While growing up his family depended on his father’s greenhouse that the family owned. His father loved to do anything that had to do with the outdoors. He spent many hours of his life working outside planting plants in the greenhouse. Roethke viewed his father as a stern man, who was serious almost all the time. So, when he wrote the poem “My Papa Waltz”, it was probably one of the few memories he had of his father dancing and acting silly. Theodore Roethke used psychoanalytic critism when he wrote “My Papa’s Waltz”, he looked back on an old childhood memory and wrote about it from his adult point of view. Most of Roethke’s poems used themes that contained power and vision. He also liked to emphasize on rhythm throughout his poems. In the poem “My Papa’s Waltz” he used an A, B, A, B rhyme scheme. The poem has a rhythm that goes smoothly with their “waltz”. Theodore Roethke uses imagery, symbolism, and metaphor in his poem “My Papa’s Waltz” to show the relationship between a father and son, it also
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.
Noora Bakhashwain ENWR 1102 03/03/2014 The Hidden “Violent Relationship” The beauty of Theodore Roethke’s poem, “My papa’s waltz” is its ability to manipulate the reader about the reality of a broken relationship. The deception within the story is about a father, his son, and an absent mother. Roethke allows the complexity of the poem to be perceived depending on the reader’s emotions and psyche. The central and most important metaphor in the poem is the description of the beating as a dance; the waltz. The severity of the violence is lessened. The association of dance gives the reader more time to adjust to the harsh truth. Roethke’s father was an immigrant and a drunk, who appears to forcibly have his way with his son while their mother stands aside unable to “unfrown” herself. The poem
In the late nineteen forties, Theodore Roethke emerged with a poem that has been the source of much debate. "My Papa's Waltz," is an account of a relationship between son and father. Alas, many readers who are exposed to this piece fail to note the love present in the connection of the characters. In an attempt to illuminate the author's true intention several factors must be examined. After several examinations of Roethke's poem as well as learning of his childhood it is evident that this poem does not suggest an abusive environment, but is an appreciative account of the love and playfulness between the characters. Therefore, a successful interpretation of this poem will look beyond the four stanzas and study not only the history of the writing, but the life of the poet.
The opening lines of the poem are more shocking than the grimness of the detail because they illustrate the bleak mood of the hero. He is distrustful "My first thought was, he lied in every word" and bitter: "That hoary cripple, with malicious eye". His despair and paranoia become evident in the inconsistency of his thought: if the man was lying about where to find
The purpose of this essay is to analyze and compare and contrast the two paired poems “My Last Duchess” by Robert Browning and “My Ex-Husband” by Gabriel Spera to find the similarities presented within the pairs. Despite the monumental time difference between “My Last Duchess” and “My Ex-Husband”, throughout both poems you will see that somebody is wronged by someone they thought was a respectable person and this all comes about by viewing a painting on the wall or picture on a shelf.
The abuse of a child tarnishes parents, permanently damages the parent-child relationship, and is completely gratuitous. Everyone has a father and has their own personal feelings towards their father. For some, these experiences are those of affection and gratefulness, however, for others this may be anger and resentment. It is easy to project these experiences onto the poem “My Papa’s Waltz” (Roethke) as the poem is a son’s reminiscence of “waltzing” with his father as a young boy. Furthermore, because the narrator seems isolated, the reader’s perceptions vary throughout the poem. Readers believe it to be a cheerful childhood memory, while another may contend it to be a disclosure of childhood abuse, nevertheless, “My Papa’s Waltz (Roethke)” confirms both perspectives and displays the narrator’s emotions through a poetic tone.
Looking back on past events can cause one to realize their insignificance. At one moment that event may seem as if it is the only thing that matters, and in the next it is trivial. If reality sets in, the event can pass, or a trivial grudge is held without end. In The Rape of the Lock, Alexander Pope makes light of such a situation. Using mock-epic poetry, Pope is able to use contrasting situations to show the insignificance of some events (Brown 4).
looks at the time and how the poet's father has lack of control of the