In his poem “My Papa’s Waltz” Theodore Roethke uses verbal irony to describe his drunk father’s actions. At first glance, the poet seems to describe a simple waltz between him and his intoxicated father. But on closer inspection, the real meaning of the story is revealed through verbal irony. The irony is already in the title itself. The metaphor in this poem was the beatings being described as waltz. In spite of all the showings throughout the poem, his father as person that he loved and still does the poet uses secondary images. It is the images outside the main image to show how the brutality existed. First and foremost, in the first stanza lines three and four the speaker exclaims that he “Hung on like death: such waltzing was not easy.” …show more content…
The underlying meaning of the story explains that it was really his father’s drunken rage and abuse of his child that knocked the pans down. His mother’s countenance “could not unfrown itself” not only because of the pans, but because of her son’s mistreatment. (7-8) These lines also imply that the speakers mother attempted to appear happy, but failed. I think the mother was upset because the child could possible get hurt dancing with his intoxicated father. They were also making a mess, so it could also mean the mother could be looking silently while her child is being abused by the father. She would be feeling regret by not saying …show more content…
He is describing waltzing but with somewhat violent terms. In lines three and four in the third stanza explains the whole perspective of the poem. In this stanza it describes violently how the father was being abusive. The poem implies that his father was a deplorable dancer, but in reality to me means that his father’s missed steps or kicks. “With a palm caked hard by dirt,” This line means to me that the father probably worked in some sort of manual labor like a factory. The lines that supported my reasons was “The hand that held my wrist” and “Was battered on one knuckle.” In line 15 when the speaker exclaimed: “Then waltzed me off to bed” makes readers think the father could have beats his son and send him to bed. In my point a view I think that the father and son danced for a long time until they was tired and and couldn’t dance anymore. The father then sends his son to his bedroom. The last line of the fourth stanza is so interesting. This gives readers the feeling that he loved and stayed with his father during his childhood, and that he does that even now when his childhood is no longer with him. The speaker states he was “Still clinging to your shirt.” This line could take many turns about how people would think about it. It could be meaning that the son himself was literally hanging onto his father’s shirt, begging him to stop. Yet, it could even be said that the child was determined to hang
In “My Papa’s Waltz,” poet Theodore Roethke uses sensory details and ambiguous language to persuade both the boy and the reader that the boy still loves his father, despite him being an alcoholic. On the third sentence of the first stanza, Roethke uses ambiguous language by stating: “But I hung on like death. Such waltzing was not easy.” Although this plainly means that the boy was holding onto his father without ease, it can be interpreted in another way; the boy still loves his father, even though it is hard to love him with his alcoholism at times, and the boy still loves his father very much. The boy is reflecting on this idea while waltzing with his
In the third stanza, he describes him being wounded by his father. In the fourth stanza, he gives off the image of him being beat by his father to bed. These images help the reader visualize what the narrator had to go through in his childhood. It gave the reader a feeling of how it felt like being in the narrator’s
The imagery of “My Papas Waltz” can clearly be understood as a father waltzing with his son in the kitchen, tapping the beat too his son’s head, and his ear scraping his buckle against his child’s ear. The poem is playful when the poem says, “At every step you missed/ My right ear scraped a buckle” (Roethke lines 11-12).
Further, Roethke uses word diction to set the overall tone for this poem. The word “waltz” which is used frequently throughout the text means “to dance in triple time performed by a couple who as a pair turn rhythmically around and around as they progress around the dance floor.” If Roethke was undergoing abuse, the author would choose unfavorable words to describe encounters with his father. Instead, Roethke uses heartening words to get his message across; which is that he will cherish the memorable times he shared with his father. Another word easily misinterpreted is “romped” used in line five, which gives readers a negative connotation; but in truth means “ to play roughly and energetically”
Throughout the poem, an extended metaphor is utilized to compare the relationship to a light waltz. When his father doesn’t agree with him, the two often engage in altercations that leave
This son is shown to fight with his dad when the dad is drunk, but, by the end of the poem you can see that he still wants his dads love and approval. We see this want for love and acceptance in the movie Stand By Me directed by Rob Reiner. A character named Teddy, in the movie, has problems with his dad because he is an alcoholic, you are not given a lot of information about Teddy’s dad, and home life, but from what is told in the movie, you can tell Teddy’s father is not a good person, and seems to abuse Teddy. Teddy is like the boy in “My Papa’s Waltz” because there is not a lot of information given, yet you still seem like you painfully know everything that is going on with these two boys and their fathers. Even though Teddy has a dead beat father, when people say impolite things about him, Teddy gets very angry and always chooses to stand up for him, and defend him.
The poem My Papa’s Waltz by Theodore Roethke, came from a collection of poems titled The Lost Son. All of these poems portray Roethke as a child torn between admiration of his father and disgust for his father’s actions. This particular poem reflects on the struggles Roethke endured in his childhood. When reading My Papa’s Waltz, the reader sees the father’s behavior through Roethke’s childhood memory. Rhyme, rhythm, irony, paradox and word choice are all effects that Roethke uses to convey his feelings towards his father.
Lee uses shifts in tense as well as assertive diction throughout the poem in order to convey the worrisome attitude that the father has when
The father/son relationship are shown in both poems. Both are adults reflecting on their past. “My Papa’s Waltz” is about how the father would dance daily with the son. Although it was painful when he sometimes missed a step and his “right ear scraped a buckle”, this was a memorable memory for the son (Line 8). The poem has a happy tone of the sons childhood days.
Another example of this, in the last stanza, lines 15-16, is made as Roethke notes “[t]hen waltzed me off to bed/[s]till clinging to your shirt.” The last lines of the poem show the true relationship at the end of all the confusion lost in the midst of the middle of the poem. The father loves his son and waltzes him to bed and the boy, loving his father, slings to his shirt to stay with him. The poem expresses the confusion and complexity created in a relationship such as this one between father and son, but at the end, the confusion is unnecessary and what prevails is not the negatives, but instead the positive aspect of
Meanwhile, Roethke’s “My Papa’s Waltz” the speaker implies abuse through a metaphor about dancing, where, in lines 5, 6, and 11- 13 the speaker vaguely mentions abuse, saying “We romped until the pans/ slid from the kitchen shelf”, “at every step you missed/ my right ear scraped a buckle./ you beat time on my head.” These lines imply the father is abusive, boisterously beating the child in the kitchen so much so that pans fell, without actually saying so. In both poems, the speaker experiences abuse from the father figure in their
A father and son romping around in the kitchen as the mother is looking. While others may view this poem as a family torn by a father's misfortunes. In line 1, the word “Whiskey” gives some characteristics of the fathers crooked ways. Continuing on, the signs of foul play and roughness with his hands, "battered on one knuckle", and "a palm caked hard by dirt".(11-14) More so, some of “Papa” few escapes most likely consist of a drink when he gets home from a rough day. Concluding, “Papa”makes his own family feel very uncomfortable around him.
In the poem, My Papa’s Waltz, the speaker, Theodore Roethke, writes about a father and son waltzing. Further investigation suggests there is more going on than a waltz. The poet utilizes figure of speech and a negative toned vocabulary throughout the poem. Thus, alleviating the reader of the harsh truth of an abusive relationship whilst never dehumanizing the father.
“We romped until the pans slid from the kitchen shelf;” (5-6) we already know that the father has been drinking, Roethke’s diction leaves little to the imagination but chosen carefully have put together an educated form of rough play. We also witness in the next two lines that the mother is not at all happy about the situation, “my mother’s countenance could not unfrown itself.” (7-8) If there is a positive message from this poem, we do not see it any longer. There is no mention of the mother helping; there is just an image of a mother standing back letting the waltz
It is clear from the beginning of “My Papa’s Waltz” by Theodore Roethke that the author intended for the poem to give a negative connotation to the reader. The poem not only involved a seemingly alcoholic father, but also a small boy whose experience was shaped by his father’s actions. The scene depicted is negative because of the way he is swung, hit on the head, and scraped by a belt buckle. The father, unaware of how rough he handles his son, swings his child around like he is on a merry-go-round.