In the first two lines of the stanza, he establishes that the characters father is an alcoholic based on the intense smell of whiskey on his breath. It is stated that the fathers breath could make a small boy dizzy, indicating that the father has had too much to drink. In line three the author uses a simile, “but I hung on like death,” to show the darker meaning of the waltz. The characters tight grip on to his father is so hard that he is
Symbolism a. Dancing could be symbolism for the iambic pentameter of the poem, and how scary it is, just like their relationship. b. Scratching kid with his belt could show how he hurts his son unintentionally. 3. Similes a.
In the story the Narrator says to Doodle “Well, if you don’t keep trying, you’ll never learn” (page unknown). Being impatient made the Narrator push his brother beyond his limit and eventually lead to his death. The Narrator is also a cruel person. Ironically, the only person the Narrator was cruel towards was his brother. In the story the Narrator says “There is within me (and with sadness I have watched it in others) a knot of cruelty borne by the stream of love, much as our blood sometimes bears the seed of our destruction, and at times I was mean to Doodle” (page unknown).
Note- teacher marked, received 15/18 target "develop comments on structure." The poet uses the poem to emphasise how children are broken by war. The phrase "sirens ripped open the warm silk of sleep" personifies the sirens to give the violent image that wartime "ripped" children's lives. The word ripped has connotations of pain and damage and as it is a forceful word it implies that war creates a damage and pain on children that is hard to fix. The war is tearing children from "the warm silk of sleep".
In the poem the exploitation of the working classes in shown by the dire circumstances which they are left in, as in this particular example "my father sold me while my tongue / could scarcely cry 'weep weep weep weep!'". A Marxist critic would observe that because of the harsh conditions enforced on society people are unable to live a normal life with children. In order to present the theme of innocence throughout the poem, the rhyming pattern of this poem is maintained in quatrain form allowing it to create a mood of innocence with the rhythm of a child-like song. Because the poem is being told from a child’s perspective, Blake’s diction remains rudimentary using words like weep displaying the literary element known as onomatopoeia to convey a mood of unhappiness, and at the same time, bring sympathy to the reader informing them of the harsh realities of child labour. During the latter part of the 18th century and early 19th century, owners of cotton mills collected orphans and children of poor parents throughout the country, obtaining their services merely for the cost of maintaining them.
Therefore, according to the latest studies of some organizations such as children protection, spanking can create physiological problems such as depression in a child. It makes parents believe that spanking children can harm their children. Spanking children is not a good way to discipline them because children can get some mental problems. For example, children who are usually spanked by their parents believe that they hate them, so children get depression because of spanking. Children can also get mental problems because of spanking such as killing themselves.
The Father could be mistaken as a drunk or abusive, Due to lines such as “ The Whiskey on your breath/ Could make a small boy dizzy.” (1-2) But is later affirmed to be the opposite with the young boy telling us “I hung on like death.” (3) Allowing us to know he doesn’t in fact want to let go. This is not in fear for his life which the word “death implies” but it is caused by the young boy wanting to continue and have fun with his father. As each stanza progresses we can further see the unconditional love between Father and Son. The young boy’s feelings and love for his father can be better illustrated by Theodore Roethke’s imagery, when we read more in depth; Roethke shows us a young boy having a joyous time wile trying to avoid being put to bed in My Papa’s Waltz. We can begin to better understand this relationship by digging deeper into the poem itself and examining each stanza, line and even word.
Another line would be “Was battered on one knuckle” this is another method to identify bodily harm. The dance itself symbolize love between the son and father but also power and fear between the two. Roethke allows each reader to have different emotions with the way he applied his symbolism. Even though the author showed happy moments because of the dance but with the father being drunk and very power towards the son showed signs of
The 'small boy'(Booth line 2) is talking directly to his father. This, in the positive readers eyes, evokes a feeling of intimacy between the two characters. In the mean time, the fathers breath making the boy dizzy gives ammo to the readers who believe the poem is about domestic abuse. For them, this line indicates that the father was not drinking socially, but drinking oppressively to the point of abusing the whiskey. The readers that see no abuse in the poem retaliate that the boy becoming dizzy is a realistic description of the two figures being close physically, and dancing around in circles as they attempt to
According to prison records, however, Robinson’s father would go on drinking binges and disrupt everything. His mother had to hold the line by administering to the younger Robinson unemotional and often cold punishment. (Douglas 5). Jan L. Deur, and Ross D. Parke refer to a study from the 1950’s which studied the effects of inconsistent discipline and its effect on the boys examined. (Glueck and Glueck (1950).)