Please see my attached Rough draft, the rubric, and also the guidelines. Essay is on ″My papa′s Waltz″ by Theodore Roethke

Guillermo 1

Mateo Guillermo

Professor Joanna Grisham

English 1020

30 January 2020

Poetry Analysis of “ My Papa’s Waltz

A child’s love for their parents is undeniable. Growing up my father made many mistakes yet regardless of what he did my love for him always remained the same. Theodore Roethke’s proves this in his poem “My Papa’s Waltz”. Roethke’s poem is a quatrain, meaning the stanzas each have four lines. Roethke writes about a small boy’s memory of loving his father. This poem has plenty room for interpretation and those who have dealt with a not so loving parent may think differently.

In the first stanza Roethke writes “The whiskey on your breath/ Could make a small boy dizzy;/ But I hung on like death:/ Such waltzing was not easy”. While the words whiskey, dizzy, and death have negative connotations, the tone could suggest otherwise. This young boy’s father is intoxicated and more than likely reeks of alcohol. Even so his son does not mind dancing with his father. The man is drunk so his coordination will be off, and his movements will be rough. The fact that the boy chooses to hang on to his father and continue to dance already begins to show me his love for him.

In the Second stanza Roethke writes “We romped until the pans/ Slid from the kitchen shelf;/ My mother’s countenance/ Could not unfrown itself”. This stanza strengthens my idea of this child’s love. Google gives the definition “especially of a child or animal, play roughly and energetically” for the word romping. A child who is having so much fun dancing around until pans fall is obviously enjoying himself. A father who even though is drunk is willing to play around with his son is an act of love. The mother is simply mad at the mess being made.

Roethke writes in the third “The hand that held my wrist/ Was battered on one knuckle;/ At every step you missed/ My right ear scraped a buckle”. Notice that Roethke uses the word “held” this implies he is not hurting the child. The fact that the father has a battered knuckle on one hand leads me to think he is a working man. Line 11 and 12 further strengthen my idea of the poem being about love. The child is so short he only comes up to his father’s waist. When his father steps wrong it causes his buckle to scrape the boy. Even though this must be slightly painful for the boy he’s still willing to dance with his father.

Finally, Roethke finishes with “You beat time on my head/ With a palm caked hard by dirt, / Then waltzed me off to bed/ Still clinging to your shirt.” The fathers hit his son on his head to finally let him know it is time for bed. As the father walks his son to bed the boy clings to him. The boy wants nothing more than to continue dancing with his father. Therefore, he clings to him because he does not want the fun to end. All these examples show me nothing but love between these two.

Work Cited

“My Papa’s Waltz.” The Collected Poems of Theodore Roethke, by Theodore Roethke, 1961. 

“Theodore Roethke.” Poets.org, Academy of American Poets, poets.org/poet/theodore-roethke.