MY PAPA’S WALTZ
"My Papa's Waltz" was first published in 1948 in The Lost Son and Other Poems, a
collection that traces Roethke's development from childhood to maturity. "My Papa's Waltz"
is considered one of Roethke's best works. A outwardly simple poem with four rhyme,
reminiscent of an event from childhood. But this simplicity is at odds with Roethke's intricate
interweaving of different emotions and moods.According to many interpretations, while
domestic conflicts are accepted as a poem about love and fear, we can say that there is much
more to it when we dive into the depths of the verses. We can see that a father's to fainting
violence on his wife and his father's abuse by his father of a child who is drunk with the
heavy smell of alcohol, is literary, simple and despite everything, tells from the eyes of a
child who loves innocently his father.
"Waltz" is used as an allegory of domestic violence, rather than a dance performed in
harmony. There is a father whose breath smells of alcohol, and an fainted mother figure who
was most likely exposed to violence before the child. In "Notes & Discussion Reothke's "My
Papa's Waltz", Bobby Fong states, "Alcohol is invariably associated with violence, and the
mention of whiskey on the breath calls to mind incidents when their fathers came home drunk
and "romped" with the family. What was "fun" for the father, however, was fearful for
mother and children" (1990). This isn't a dance, it's a struggle between an innocent kid who
runs away and a father who beats him up. The line "We romped until the pans" carries us
from an innocent dance figure to a painful struggle scene. In "The Importance of Music to
Girls", Lavinia Greenlaw states, "This was not a gentle game" (2008). Although the reader
seems to witness a dance in the upper text, witnesses a terrible drama in the lower text. Pans
sliding off the kitchen shelf or your mom's face? Maybe it could be both. A mother who can't
frown and say "stop it". Child hand held by the wrist. A boy who has no chance in this
"My Papa's Waltz" was first published in 1948 in The Lost Son and Other Poems, a
collection that traces Roethke's development from childhood to maturity. "My Papa's Waltz"
is considered one of Roethke's best works. A outwardly simple poem with four rhyme,
reminiscent of an event from childhood. But this simplicity is at odds with Roethke's intricate
interweaving of different emotions and moods.According to many interpretations, while
domestic conflicts are accepted as a poem about love and fear, we can say that there is much
more to it when we dive into the depths of the verses. We can see that a father's to fainting
violence on his wife and his father's abuse by his father of a child who is drunk with the
heavy smell of alcohol, is literary, simple and despite everything, tells from the eyes of a
child who loves innocently his father.
"Waltz" is used as an allegory of domestic violence, rather than a dance performed in
harmony. There is a father whose breath smells of alcohol, and an fainted mother figure who
was most likely exposed to violence before the child. In "Notes & Discussion Reothke's "My
Papa's Waltz", Bobby Fong states, "Alcohol is invariably associated with violence, and the
mention of whiskey on the breath calls to mind incidents when their fathers came home drunk
and "romped" with the family. What was "fun" for the father, however, was fearful for
mother and children" (1990). This isn't a dance, it's a struggle between an innocent kid who
runs away and a father who beats him up. The line "We romped until the pans" carries us
from an innocent dance figure to a painful struggle scene. In "The Importance of Music to
Girls", Lavinia Greenlaw states, "This was not a gentle game" (2008). Although the reader
seems to witness a dance in the upper text, witnesses a terrible drama in the lower text. Pans
sliding off the kitchen shelf or your mom's face? Maybe it could be both. A mother who can't
frown and say "stop it". Child hand held by the wrist. A boy who has no chance in this
