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My Papa's Waltz Poem

836 Words4 Pages

Marsha Van Boening
Essay Test Two
English 122
September 23, 2017
Cutting a Rug
Children crave love from their parents and the aspect in which it is received is either affirmative or conflicting. Unfortunately, the abuse of children happens in families either at the physical hands of their parents or through their words and in spite of the abuse, the children continue to love their parents. “My Papa’s Waltz”, a poem by Theodore Roethke, uses word choice, imagery and symbolism to create the argument of how love can overshadow abuse.
Roethke wrote this poem of sixteen lines, creating four stanzas consisting of four lines each. The reader can pick up on the rhyme scheme promptly, but looking a little closer one sees slant rhyme incorporated. These …show more content…

The hand that held my wrist Was battered on one knuckle… (lines 5-10)
The author uses “romped” to give the impression that maybe the father is simply roughhousing with his son, but “pans slid[ing] from a shelf” (lines 5 and 6) creates an image of the father pushing his son, causing the pans to crash to the floor. “My mother’s countenance [c]ould not unfrown itself” (lines 7 and 8) lets the reader know that she is unhappily watching the abuse. It also tells that the son sees his mother’s frown, and puts the image that he does not want her involved, and in this way, he is showing his love for her. One might think that the “battered knuckle” (line 10) on the father’s hand would indicate that he is a working man. But one can also get the impression that the knuckle was battered through the conflict going on between the father and his son. Symbolism is key to the whole poem, “My Papa’s Waltz,” as the dance the Roethke describes is not dancing at all, and it is more than “romping” (line 5) or roughhousing that is occurring between the father and son. “Waltz” refers to the abuse and violence that takes place in the kitchen. You beat time on my head With a palm caked hard by dirt; Then waltzed me off to

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