My Papa's Waltz By Theodore Roethke

In “My Papa’s Waltz,” Theodore Roethke writes about a childhood memory interpreting his relationship with his father. Although the poem comes off as a compassionate tale about a man coming home and dancing with his son, Roethke actually depicted his recollections as a child in an abusive household. Growing up in the 1900’s, Roethke experienced stages of depression, stemming from the loss of his father and uncle, self esteem issues, and years of misery. Roethke channeled his agony into dedicating his time to academics and pursuing his career in writing. In spite of being abused, Roethke managed to overcome his past traumas to become a brilliant writer. The experiences he went through would later help define him as a poet.

From a young age,

Throughout the poem, Roethke hints subtly that his father and he dancing to a waltz was in fact a physical altercation. His use of vocabulary, including the words “romped” (5), “battered”(10), and “beat”(13) all suggest negative connotations, though Roethke still keeps an upbeat tone. Yet his rhyming scheme can be used in a lighthearted manner, Roethke’s command of language could be used as an illusion to deceive the reader. The innocence he portrays is an obvious indicator that he was not aware of the actual abuse taking place at the time, but he recognized it after the

This can cause confusion for any child because they are not able to perceive their loving parent as someone who wants to cause harm to them. For this reason, Roethke continues to refer to his abusive father as “papa”, known as a term of endearment. Long-term effects of child abuse leave scars that result in Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, according to Carolyn Knight who is the author of Working with Adult Survivors of Childhood Trauma. She goes as far to say that children are unable to cope with the psychological issues of what is going around them. They begin to repress their memories of the situations they are placed in and face it head on years later when it begins to