My Papas Waltz, by Theodore Roethke

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Abby Dester English II 10/24/2012 My Papa’s Waltz Abuse is the last thing this poem portrays. If indeed this poem represented a boy being abused by his father the title “My papa’s waltz” would instead be titled “My father’s drunken dance” The author uses subtle hints to this. The word Papa means that the little boy looks to his father with respect and innocence. The word waltz is used to describe how they were dancing around the room. To me “waltz’ is not one would use with an abusive father. During their waltz the father seems to be grabbing his son “ The hand that held my wrist/was battered on one knuckle”(lines 6-7) Now, there are many ways to interpret the battered knuckles. But in this piece the father is nothing more than a hard working man with battered and scraped up hands to prove it. In the last line in stanza three “My right ear scraped a buckle” (line 12) which comes back to stanza one where the boy is much shorter than the father. With knowing this he is about the height of his fathers belt buckle. With the alcohol in his fathers system it is causing him to stumble, and with every stumble the little boys ear brushes against his belt buckle. This is not a "harsh reality" lesson for the boy, and it's definitely not straightforward abuse either. The Dad works hard, and he drinks hard too. He loves his son and was not deliberately trying to hurt him here it's just that he was drunk and didn't realize he was scaring and hurting the kid. The first couple of lines suggest that they may be dancing, or in this case waltzing it is clear that with the authors word choice there is a sizable difference in the physical build to the boy and his father. “The whiskey on your breath/could make a boy dizzy” (lines 1-2) The way the boy expresses his though about his fathers breathe is shown that this isn’t the first time he has smelled whiskey on his breath,

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