Lue 1

Chelsi Lue
Dr. Griffin
Tech Prep 12
18 November 2013
"My Papa's Waltz"
by Theodore Roethke
The whiskey on your breath
Could make a small boy dizzy;
But I hung on like death:
Such waltzing was not easy.
We romped until the pans
Slid from the kitchen shelf;
My mother's countenance
Could not unfrown itself.
The hand that held my wrist
Was battered on one knuckle;
At every step you missed
My right ear scraped a buckle.
You beat time on my head
With a palm caked hard by dirt,
Then waltzed me off to bed
Still clinging to your shirt.
Commented [CL1]: This makes me think about a poor family
with a father as an alcoholic.
Commented [CL2]: This makes me think about a boy coming
off of a speeding carousel and walking in circles
Commented [CL3]: This makes me think about the grim
reappear holding on to us all our lives
Commented [CL4]: This makes me think of about the actual
dance called the waltz compared to whats happening in the boys
life with the alcoholic man
Commented [CL5]: This makes me think about children literally
bouncing off the walls when they get into a game they play.
Commented [CL6]: This makes me think about a shelf at
unimaginable heights (compared to a small three year old) on a wall
in a dusty shack down south and old pans flying off of them.
Commented [CL7]: This makes me think about an old wearied
woman thats in her mid to late 30s who looks at least 45 years old
with an expressionless face. Not really a frown
Commented [CL8]: This makes me think about a womans face
with more so the amount of dissatisfaction in her eyes then her
frowned face
Commented [CL9]: This makes me think about his mothers
hands very old and wrinkly because of her hard work grabbing his
smooth young skin on his wrist.
Commented [CL10]: This makes me think about a cut that
never properly healed and its some what red
Commented [CL11]: This makes me think about holes in the
floor that he missed every other step he took
Commented [CL12]: This makes me think about his bruised ear
from other games he played as a child
Commented [CL13]: This makes me think about his mother
hitting him on the top of his head for the mess in the kitchen from
romping
Commented [CL14]: This makes me think about her hands that
have smudges of dirt on them from the yard work she was doing
possibly
Commented [CL15]: This makes me think about how she
moved him smoothly like the actual dance.
Commented [CL16]: This makes me think about a small child
being carried with one arm holding on to the shirt with his/her
small hands
Lue 2

This poem made me feel a little remourseful for the small child. All he wanted to do was play
and have like all children do but instead he is punished harshly.