My Papa’s Waltz Summary Lines 1-2 The whiskey on your breath Could make a small boy dizzy; Judging by the title, the person addressed in these lines is the small boy's father, and the small boy is our speaker. The father has been drinking whiskey, and not just a little. He's so drunk that even the smell of his breath could make a small boy, like his son, feel a bit woozy. These lines show that the poem will address the father in the second person, referring to him as "you." But we don't think he's actually there with the boy because, after all, we hear nothing back from the man.
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.
“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.
As the dance proceeds the lines “The hand that held my wrist, Was battered on one knuckle” (9-10), could lead one to believe this was in an abusive manner, as in he had injured his hand on the little boy. Secondly you can look at the poem as a positive memory. “We romped until the pans, Slid from the kitchen shelf” (5-6). This can simply be viewed as a little boy fondly remembering a father coming home from a hard day of work and still having time to play before bed. Also these words aren’t harsh but lighthearted and energetic.
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.
Chandler Bing Mr. Jefferson English 3H Period 1 February , 2014 My Papa’s Waltz Child abuse does not necessarily need to be full on physical blows but can be done in other manners. “My Papa’s Waltz” by Theodore Roethke is about a drunken father who is overly aggressive towards his son while the mother does nothing. Theodore Roethke uses poetic devices, poetic structure, and a connection to historical/literary period in “My Papa’s Waltz” to discuss how child abuse is immoral and should not be allowed to occur. The poet uses a simile and imagery to emphasize the child abuse in the poem. One example of a simile from the poem is, “But I hung on like death;” (Stanza 1 Line 3).
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.
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 James Joyce's "Araby," the unnamed narrator is a young boy who lives with his aunt and uncle in a dark and untidy home. The boy is obsessed with his friend's sister and often follows her “brown-clad figure”, but he never has the courage to talk to her. He plans to bring her something from “Araby” the bazaar and hopes that by doing so he will impress her, however the unsuccessful way to the bazaar makes him disappointed with reality. Araby employs many themes; the two most apparent themes to the readers is firstly, to escape from darkness and secondly, a boy’s first love. The story both begins and ends with darkness.
Mid-Term Break The poem is about the death of Heaney's infant brother (Christopher) and how people (including himself) reacted to this. The poem's title suggests a holiday but this “break” does not happen for pleasant reasons. For most of the poem Heaney writes of people's unnatural reactions, but at the end he is able to grieve honestly. The boredom of waiting appears in the counting of bells but “knelling” suggests a funeral bell, rather than a bell for lessons. The modern reader may be struck by the neighbours' driving the young Seamus home - his parents may not have a car (quite usual then - Heaney was born in 1939, and is here at boarding school, so this is the 1950s) or, more likely, were too busy at home, and relied on their neighbours to help.