My Papa's Waltz Analysis

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The poem “My Papa’s Waltz” by Theodore Roethke is a poem from a child’s point of view about him and his father. The title is a reference to the way his father is walking. He refers to his “papas waltz” several times throughout the poem, he’s talking about the way he is holding him and walking around the house with him. The setting is in his house late at night after his father has arrived home form work. His message throughout the whole poem is despite his fathers violence and alcohol abuse he still loves his father no matter what. In the poem there is some hints of violence, but not much. For example, when he says “the whiskey on your breath could make a small boy dizzy” clearly shows that his father is drunk. When someone is drunk, it usually gives the feeling of aggressiveness and violence. He also shows violence when saying “we romped until the pans slid from the kitchen shelf.” Maybe the child thought they were playing, but as he was drunk he probably was stumbling around hitting things causing the pans to fall, plus he says how his mother was discontent with his father at this specific time. When he says “At every step you missed, my right ear scraped a buckle,” doesn’t show violence but does emphasize that he’s drunk. The author is giving an image that as his father walks clumsily, his head hits against his fathers belt and he is too scared to say anything to him Ramirez 2 about it, so he just takes it. There is also a sense of love in the poem. He uses the simile “but I hung on like death, such waltzing was not easy” to show that he hung on to his father not wanting to get off of him even though it was difficult for him to hang on. It shows that he loves his father even if he is drunk. At the end of the poem, I believe the whole story is that his father came home from work, drunk. Once he got home he picked up his son and began to dance with

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