Saying that the boy hung on "like" death is an example of a simile. Line 4 Such waltzing was not easy. This line wraps up the first stanza. In what could be a happy moment, father and son dancing, we see that it's kind of tricky for the son to hold on to his drunken father. Also, if the waltz of this poem is a metaphor for their father-son relationship, this could show that it's not easy to dance between loving and fearing his father's power Lines 5-6 We romped until the pans Slid from the kitchen shelf; This is not a quiet, stately waltz, but a romp!
Now this is the side of the story that I see, and the theme for this said would be the importance of family. This could be the theme for this subject because in the poem the boy seems to truly enjoy the horse play with his father, as it says in the poem “Then waltzed me off to bed / Still clinging to your shirt” (15-16), which shows he wants to keep playing and not go to bed. The other theme/subject is a little darker, where it seems that a drunken father comes home late one night to beat on his son. The theme for this subject is simple, “Abuse”, as this shows a young boy being beat. An example of this in the poem is when it says, “The hand that held my wrist / Was battered on one knuckle” (9-10), which shows the boy is being beat.
Harmonium and Nettles Harmonium and Nettles both highlight the theme of memory. As they both are looking back over past memories that are painful, the poems feature the feelings of being helpless in stopping the hurt that was caused. The writer in Harmonium feels remorse for the things he hadn’t said to his father as Armitage states “then mouth in reply some shallow sorry phrase or word too starved of breath to make itself heard”. The writer in Nettles is protective of the recurring threat to his child that he can’t destroy. “rain had called up tall recruits behind the shed,” this quote shows the father cannot destroy them .They differ in the way they felt powerless however as in Nettles the father is feeling powerless because of a physical threat whereas in Harmonium it is an emotional threat of the inevibility of death and unspoken feelings that makes the writer feel powerless.
“My Papa’s Waltz” The vagueness of “My Papa’s Waltz” makes it difficult to be certain what it is about. Some might argue that the poem is a tale of child abuse, but it is more likely telling the story of a father and son’s horseplay. “The whiskey on your breathe could make a small boy dizzy.” This line doesn’t refer to the father as being stumbling drunk. Many people have an evening drink without getting drunk. “But I hung on you like death.” The boy holds on like his life depends on it because he is having so much fun, not because he is terrified as it may seem.
In Victorian times when Rossetti was writing, this would certainly have been considered shameful. The narrator answers the questions in the first quatrain, naming her sister Maude as the person who told her parents what was happening. Andrew Foster begins his poem in first person perspective indicating that the narrator is narrating a tale to the audience however the poem is actually aimed at the narrators' younger brother and is written in free verse making the poem sound like a story being told in spoken English. The narrator starts off with the tone which the metaphor `Saddled with you' set suggesting the negative feelings the speaker has for his brother, as if he is an inconvenience, restricting the freedom of the speaker. With the third stanza makes it clear that the older boys are still children, despite how they would like to be seen by the world: they 'chased Olympic Gold'
Brittney Lindsey Professor Howard English 102 29 Mar 2013 Journal 1 In The poem “My Papa Waltz”, the relationship between the speaker and his father is an abnormal relationship, his father is engaging his child in his drunken activities .Before the child drifts of to sleep, he gets the opportunity to dance with his father .The Father is so drunk that the alcohol on his breath second handily intoxicates his son and makes him dizzy along with the fast paced dancing. Even though this dancing is an annoyance to his mother, and the child is well aware of this. The son continues to hold on to his drunken father in comfort no matter what the circumstances are. I feel like the son is gaining comfort from his father because, he may not receive any attention at all from his father when he is sober and this is his only opportunity to bond with his father even though he is intoxicated with alcohol. In “The Secretary’s Chant” The speaker turns herself into a machine in comparison to the objects that surround her in her everyday scene as a secretary.
I think that Jackie feels that Billy now is a shame for the family, because of what he is doing, and he cannot really see why Billy should do something as ridiculous as ballet. Jackie changes his mind about ballet, when he sees Billy dancing in the boxing hall, with one of his friends, and after Billy has told his father, how much he loves ballet. Jackie opens up his eyes, and
Good Morning brothers and sisters. Going into to the world is an evident subject explored within the film Billy Elliot. The story is about a young boy who finds his passion for ballet in a stereotypical world in the 80s. Billy Elliot is a person we can all relate too. His home life isn't the greatest - he has lost his mother and his father Jackie is an alcoholic and cannabis smoker.
We see this when Mrs. Wilkonson (Julie Walters) visits and argues about Billy's dancing with Tony and Jackie, we see him run away and there is a montage of him dancing in his courtyard. This shows that instead of screaming, he can dance and calm down. The technique used in this scene is when Billy kicks down the door, he would not normally be able to kick it down but it emphasizes the anger he has. On Christmas day, Billy and Michael (Stuart Wells) are
In Theodore Roethke’s “My Papa’s Waltz”, this is exactly the case. A boy and his father share a very loving memory of dancing a drunken waltz. The boy looks past the fact that his father is drunk because he loves him very much. The imagery that Roethke uses lets the reader transport to the kitchen where the boy and his father are dancing. Roethke’s work plants very vivid images in his reader’s mind that paint a very clear image of the boy and his drunken father.