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Zach Bush

Mrs. Carter

AP Literature

5 May 2014


My Papas 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 mothers 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.

Theodore Roethkes poem My Papas Waltz is written in a way that brings a wide
range of emotional feelings to the reader. Whether it is a description of a loving relationship
between a father and a child or one that is filled with physical abuse, the different ways of
interpreting the poem makes it both ambiguous and interesting to the point where one may think
this is what Roethke set out to do when writing this poem. The authors choice of diction creates
the tone of the poem and the imagery he uses to describe the relationship between a father and a
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child is simple and yet complicated at the same time because of the different meanings of
interpretation.
In the first stanza, Roethke paints an image of an old man who likes to drink alcohol and
a child who is trying to grab the attention of his father. The word dizzy often times means
unsteady on the feet. Having too much alcohol or spinning around in a dance like the waltz can
make a person dizzy. But I hung on like death: can be interpreted as a way for the child to
express his desire or need to have his fathers love so he hangs on to it. Death, on the other hand,
can be a choice of word the author uses to convey the dangerous side of the relationship between
father and child. Such waltzing was not easy is a simple observation the child makes about his
relationship with his father. The child gives the first hint to the reader that although he loves his
father, life with him was not always easy. The child is comparing his life with his father to that
of a dance, a dance that is full of twists and turns.
The second stanza starts off on a more positive note with the authors word choice of
using romped to indicate a more playful side of the father-child relationship and yet ends with
a negative connotation of mother not approving the behavior and feeling helpless. Romped on
the other hand, could also take on the meaning of a fight or an argument. The use of the word
countenance to describe the mothers facial expression does not seem to fit in with a child
telling a story about the relationship with his father. This gives the hint that the story is being
told in the past when the child is now an adult, a childhood memory. Although unfrown is not
a real word, using it to describe the mothers unhappiness with the situation between father and
child is effective because a frown denotes disapproval and sadness.
In the third stanza, The hand that held my wrist is significant Instead of hand in hand,
the father is described as grabbing onto the childs wrist as a sign of force leaving the child
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helpless like his mother in stanza two. His battered knuckles could be from fights the father
was in. Battered seems to indicate some type of abuse and yet the author places a doubt that
perhaps the father is a hard working man and has the scares on his hands to prove it. At every
step you missed can be interpreted as a drunk unsteady on his feet or it could mean that the
fathers timing in his dance is off a little. In either case, My right ear scraped a buckle indicates
some type of abuse or injury occurs when the father takes a wrong step whether that is from a
beating with a belt buckle or the childs ear rubbing up against it when they walk.
In the last stanza, the authors use of the word beat once again indicates a dark tone of
physical abuse. With a palm caked hard by dirt, can take on several meanings. The father is
dirty and does not keep up with his personal hygiene or the father is a hard working man trying
to make ends meet with manual labor. Even though there are signs of abuse from the father
towards the child, it is the unconditional love the child has for his father that keeps him
clinging to his father. He would rather waltz with his father than have to go to bed and leave
his side.
In conclusion, the authors choice of diction creates a tone that is very powerful and yet
puzzling in that the reader can interpret the words in several different ways. Words such death,
countenance, unfrown, battered, scraped, beat, held, and clinging can create a
tone of violence, abuse, and helplessness. On the other hand, words such as waltz, romped,
held, can denote a more happy relationship. In either case, the imagery the author portrays is
that of a father with his son dancing in a relationship that can have missteps along the way but in
the end, is a loving one.