Tone Of My Papa's Waltz By Theodore Roethke

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The poem “My Papa’s Waltz” by Theodore Roethke uses imagery and a tone to paint a picture of something but, means something different. This idea is to illustrate that things are not always what they seem. In doing so as humans people like to see or think the worst. This poem exploits this flaw and means something completely different. It uses imagery to make the poem appear to be a father abusing his daughter. This poem depicts the father as a man who drinks way too much and takes his anger out on his daughter shown here, “The whiskey on your breath could make a small boy dizzy,” (Line 1 and 2) In fact that is not the case at all the tone is very serious even though the deeper meaning of the poem is happy. The author utilizes these two literary elements elements very well to challenge the reader to dig deeper. To focus deeper on imagery it paints a very dark thought at first about how a father physically abuses his kid in front of the mom. This shows how good the author is at writing and how he ties in the theme to the poem. A line that is so misinterpreted is, “At every step you missed, my right ear scraped a …show more content…

The tone works with both the theme and the imagery used in the poem. The tone tricks the reader and forces them to dig deeper to find the the actual meaning of the poem. An example of seriousness is seen here, “The hand that held my wrist was battered on one knuckle,” (Line 9 and 10) Now this is not funny or happy or even sad it is just serious and sets the tone for the poem. The theme of the poem is one that can only be found after the real meaning is discovered. The reason this poem faces is so famous is its ability to have 2 faces, now the second face is the real one and the first face us there to confuse the reader and lead them in the wrong direction but if they remove that mask they will see the poem in a whole new

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