My Papa's Waltz

320 Words2 Pages
My Papa’s Waltz "My papa's waltz" is a reflection of a childhood experience involving a father. Roethke’s use of diction and details covers the narrator's comply attitudes toward his father, the boy is a little sacred about his father. In the poem "My papa's waltz" Theodore Roethke, the narrator is reflecting on a childhood experience including his father. It appears that the young boy is afraid of his father. The first line says, "the whiskey on your breath/ could make a small boy dizzy"(1-2). This is showing that the father has been drinking whiskey, and the smell of it causes the young boy's aversion. The diction of "dizzy" means that the young boy is getting overwhelmed by the smell of the whiskey. The second line shows says, "but I hung on like death / such waltzing was not e asy"(3-4).This line shows that the boy is having a hard time dancing because his father is drunk so he can not dance very good, and the boy is afraid to fell down. The boy is felling a little uncomfortable when he is dancing with his father," the hand that hold my wrist was buttered on one knuckle"(9-10). The boy is trying to enjoy the dancing with his father. At the end the boy is happy because he is enjoying the dancing the line that shows his joy is "then waltz me off to bed / still clinging to your shirt"(15-16). The boy is happy so he do not want to led his father go so he is clinging to his shirt. The author showed us some fear, some uncomforted a lot of mess but at the last paragraph the author shows us what the poems is about . The author want us to understand that even though the boy was afraid and a little uncomfortable he was happy because he was with his

More about My Papa's Waltz

Open Document