John W. Whitehead, founder of the Rutherford Institute, once said, “Children are the living messages we send to a time we will not see.” This statement is more than accurate, and important for people to recognize. Children are the gateway to the future and how they are handled foreshadows the generation that will follow as a whole. Theodore Roethke displays the connection between parent and child through the poem, My Papa’s Waltz. This piece focuses on the influence that a parent has on a child, in comparison to the poem, Sins of the Father, in which W.D Ehrhart concentrates his work on the revelations that parents experience through their children’s life development. Both My Papa’s Waltz and Sins of the Father share similarities and …show more content…
It does not draw any specific issues to the audience and is open ending, leading to a wide variety of interpretations. Generally, the poem is about a young child and a father, rough housing in the kitchen during the evening. In the second stanza of the poem Roethke writes ,“We romped until the pans slid from the kitchen shelf; ...” (Roethke lines 5,6) This is a line that provides the setting for the poem. This is something that shows genuine friendship, the dancing and playing of father and child in front of the mother in the kitchen. One can gather from the last two stanzas of the poem that the father is a hard working man. “The hand that held my wrist was battered on one knuckle; ... With a palm caked hard by dirt,” (Roethke 9,10,14) The father’s hands are rough and dirty, he probably works with his hands all day which leads them to be this way. The mother being mentioned in the poem adds to the sense of family life, if she was absent it would lead to inferences as to where a mother figure was. Roethke writes about the detail of the father drinking whiskey to add reality into the poem. Instead of the poem being flowery and embellished with words and ideas, the straight forward description of the father’s alcohol consumption makes it realistic and
The poem imaginatively re-creates a childhood encounter with his father. It may be read as an uplifting memory of a happy day, however when one engages further into investigating Roethke’s work, a darker perspective of the event emerges (Bachelorandmaster, 2015). Although we cannot identify that this poem is explicitly about his father from just simply reading it, when deeply exploring Roethke’s relationship with his father further, it can be identified that both the poem and relationship are connected in this way. The story conveys both the fathers love for the son and the son’s fear of this overpowering event, a combination which explains why the poem haunted so many of it’s readers (Shmoop,
In his recollection, Roethke's father comes home drunk after a hard day of work. The young boy and his father decide to partake in a little dance. While waltzing, the two get a little rambunctious with each other. As a result, some people view this poem with a disdainful-like perception and suppose Theodore wrote the poem with dark thoughts in mind. Rather, despite his father's drunkenness, the young Theodore enjoyed every second of it. There is a strong bond between them that upon careful examination, one can clearly understand in the poem "My Papa's Waltz."
Inevitability at one point in most of our lives we have to deal with some type of hardship. A lot of us have experienced first hand or known someone who has had the unfortunate experience of dealing with a close friend or family member who becomes abusive and aggressive because of drug or alcohol related problems. My Papa’s waltz is a poem that tells the story of a young boy dealing with an abusive father and a broken home. Despite the initial light atmosphere of the poem Theodore Roethke uses strong and powerful language to convey an underlined meaning to their dance. My Papa's Waltz is a poem of fear, all the more horrible because the boy is terrified and hurt by his father, even in play, yet he clings and hangs to him showing how strong he is despite his age and through his actions he illustrates his love and patience for his troubled father.
Roethke uses imagery and diction that makes the reader feel different emotions. The imagery of a father with whiskey on his breath and battered knuckles paints a picture of a scruffy, rugged man. On the other hand, the diction and imagery of “waltzing” in line 4 creates a soft and sweet image of a father and child dancing. The image of “My right ear scraped a buckle / You beat
The first line in the poem introduces the fact that the father has been drinking whiskey. Now, most of us know that people have different reactions to alcohol. Some people are funny and like to have a good time, others become pretty mean. Which category the father falls in is hotly debated, however, most agree that the father’s drinking is the catalyst for the events in the rest of the poem be it waltzing or beating. Then comes the line, “But I hung on like death.” This is an incredibly powerful simile. Death has a negative connotation and adds a darkness to the piece as well as creating some very strong and powerful imagery. Also in the vein of imagery, the description of the father’s hands as “battered on one knuckle,” and “palm caked hard by dirt,” are very descriptive. His hands’ knuckles could be battered (which is an intense word that usually indicates some type of violence) from hitting and abusing the boy, or, in tandem with his hands being caked with dirt, just shows that his father is a hard
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.
Using a strand of harsh words including “beat,” “scraped,” “battered,” and “whiskey,” the narrator suggests an idea of a harsh relationship despite any fond memories that were discussed. If the narrator simply intended to reflect a warm commemoration, he could have used a strand of words that implied happiness or comfort. The author was clearly aware that at first glance, readers typically assume the poem is about an abusive relationship; nevertheless, he neglected to alter his poem, demonstrating the idea that negative memories of the father do exist.
The poem opens with a son talking about his father’s alcoholism, describing that the amount of whiskey his father drank “could make a small boy dizzy” (Roethke) with the effects of alcohol. The figurative dance with addiction is not easy for the boy, but he still “hung on like death” (Roethke), hoping for a brighter outcome. The father and son are in the kitchen, where the amount of the father’s drunken, physical abuse on the child causes pans to fall from kitchen shelves (Roethke). The boy’s mother, however, can only stand to the side and watch the events unfold with a “countenance [that] could not unfrown itself” (Roethke). The boy’s father grabs him by the wrist with a “battered...knuckle” (Roethke). With this interpretation in mind, the cause of the father’s rough hands becomes unclear. His hands could still be rough from a hard day of work, or perhaps his abusive nature has ended with injuries on his hands. The amount of alcohol consumed by the father causes him to stumble, or miss steps, according to the speaker. As the physical abuse continues, the child states he is “still clinging to [his father’s] shirt” (Roethke). This last line hints that, although the father is an abusive drunk, the child still loves his father and clings to this love with the hope that someday things will improve for his
Poems are often designed to express deep feelings and thoughts about a particular theme. In Theodore Roethke’s poem, My Papa’s Waltz, and Ruth Whitman’s poem, Listening to grownups quarreling, the theme of childhood is conveyed through their details, although we can neither see a face nor hear a voice. These poems are very much alike in their ideas of how their memories pertain to the attitudes of their childhood; however, the wording and tones of the two poems are distinct in how they present their memories. The two poems can be compared and contrasted through the author’s use of tone, imagery, and recollection of events; which illustrate each author’s memories of childhood.
The author somewhat implicates feelings of resentment fused with a loving reliance with his father. For example, the first two lines of the poem read: "The whiskey on your breath/ Could make a small boy dizzy;" (Roethke 668). This excerpt appears to set a dark sort of mood for the entire rest of the poem. By the first two lines, the reader may already see how this man feels about his father's drunkenness. It seems as if Roethke has preceded his poem with this factor in order to demonstrate the resentment that he feels toward his father.
Indeed, the satirical tone of this poem suggests that the speaker is somewhat critical of his father. The whiskey smell, the roughness, the inconsiderate and reckless actions are under scrutiny. The mother's frowning countenance suggests she too is rather unhappy with the scene. However, the winning tone of the poem is the light and comical one.
While reading the poem the reader can imply that the father provides for his wife and son, but deals with the stress of having to work hard in a bad way. He may do what it takes to make sure his family is stable, but while doing so he is getting drunk and beating his son. For example, in lines 1 and 2, “The whisky on your breath Could make a small boy dizzy” symbolizes how much the father was drinking. He was drinking so much, the scent was too much to take. Lines 7 and 8, “My mother’s countenance, Could not unfrown itself.” This helps the reader understand the mother’s perspective on things. She is unhappy seeing what is going on which is why she is frowning. Although she never says anything it can be implied that because of the fact that the mother never speaks up just shows how scared she could be of her drunk husband. Lines 9 and 10, “The hand that held my wrist Was battered on one knuckle”, with this line the reader is able to see using imagery that the father is a hard worker because as said above his knuckle was battered. The reader can also take this in a different direction by saying that his hand was battered from beating his child as well. Lastly, lines 13 and 14, “You beat time on my head With a palm caked hard by dirt” As well as the quote above this quote shows that the father was beating his child with his dirty hand from all the work the father has
Though the author does not directly state that that father is abusive towards his son, Rothke alludes to violence through imagery. Abusive children are often seen with bruises on their wrist as their parents clench their arm in an effort to “control” their children. Roethke uses this fact to demonstrate to his readers that the son in his work is abused. Furthermore the author also uses words that carry a negative connotation such as battered and scraped, to allude to the sinister meaning behind the poem. The author's diction encapsulated the negative meaning to the poem and allowed the readers to realize abuse was occurring. To continue, Roethke uses the image of a waltz to add an ironic twist to the poem. “My Papa’s Waltz” has a positive connotation as waltzes are viewed by society as graceful dances. However, Roethke uses the image of a waltz to describe a father brutalizing his son. This contrast between the waltz and the content of the poem is ironic due to the graceful nature of the dance but the violent and messy nature of the poems content. Children with abusive parents tend to hid the abuse and the waltz in the story served as the image the family displayed to society, a perfect family, whereas the content of the poem represents the true nature of the
The poem takes the reader back in time for a moment to a small kitchen and a young boy at bedtime. The dishes have been cleared and placed on the counter or in the sink. The family is seated around the table. The father having a glass of whiskey to relax after a very hard day working in the family owned twenty-five-acre greenhouse complex. He is asked to take his small son to bed. The poem begins, “The whiskey on your breath could make a small boy dizzy” (Roethke line 1) enlists the imagery of what the young boy was smelling as he most likely climbed aboard his fathers’ large work boots for the evening waltz to bed. It is obvious this is an evening ritual, one that is cherished. The boy is aware of his fathers’ waltzing abilities and he concedes that he is up for the challenge. The irony of the statement, “I hung on like death” (Roethke line 3) is a private one, yet deeply describes his yearning for one more waltz with his father who passed away when Theodore was only fifteen years ...
Although Theodore Roethke and Robert Hayden have very different experiences in childhood to write about, the overall message is appreciation of their fathers. Roethke's narrator appreciates that even though his father is not a polished dancer, he takes the time to roughhouse and dance with him as a boy. Even though it hurts a little, it is a fun moment between father and son. Hayden's narrator remembers what his father did for him every morning-lighting the fire and polishing his shoes-and has great regret that he didn't appreciate his father more for doing this things. However, Hayden gives us the chance, with this poem, to appreciate our fathers more.