English Literature

Revised new Paper
Theodore Roethkes celebrated poem My Papas Waltz gives a painful story of about alcoholism and child abuse. The childs father can be seen as aggressive or a childhood idol, the child could also be seen as either a son or a daughter and also be characterized as either the worshiper or the victim. Even the mother, who has a small role in the content of the poem, her characters position could still be flipped from an admirer of the scene or someone that disapproves. The first two paragraphs of the poem explain the awful truth about the family in the poem. The very term the whiskey on your breath shows the alcohol abuse of the father in the poem. The author of the poem wonderfully captures the chaos in the family. The alcoholic father beats up the child and the vessels and pans is thrown to the floor in the kitchen. The author also introduces the mother who looks upon the messy scene. It appears as if the mother could just watch the entire scene with a saddened face. The reader should notice that also in the second stanza, the romped, the falling pans, and his mothers facial expression also gives evidence that the poem is about a domestic scene. The third paragraph of the poem contains disturbing and unpleasant words. In the third stanza we find that the father has a bruised knuckle and the childs ear rubs on his fathers belt buckle when he misses his steps. It seems that the knuckle injury of the father goes along with the palm caked hard with dirt.The author explains the knuckle as battered. This is a very important word in the poem as the word battered shows the proof of prior physical pain. The bruised knuckle also shows that the father is back at home after a bar fight. He is holding his sons wrist instead of holding his land in love. The fourth paragraph also deals with the harsh treatments of the parents towards his son. The very word clinging on the last paragraph says that the boy is clinging to save himself from the torment. There is no way for the miserable boy to fight back. Clinging is the only response from the child. The narrator is focused on events associated with the beatings rather than focusing on the emotions or the nature of the father. The narrator does not give any importance to how his father appears. His belt and his knuckles are the only things said about his father.

The poem My Papas Waltz involves little bit of irony too. It is written to resemble a waltz, a dance that is traditional and elegant, yet this waltz is attended by a drunken man whose hands are dirty and beaten. As we read the poem we feel like interpreting it with a happier theme. However, only a careful analysis of the poem would help us comprehend the emotional disturbing situation that is hidden there. The author of the poem masters the complexity of storytelling without directly telling about the anticipation of the son for his fathers homecoming, the frustration of the mother with an alcoholic husband, and the commonness of their lives, the commonness of their household belongings.

Old Paper
Theodore Roethkes celebrated poem My Papas Waltz is interpreted often as the painful story of alcoholism and child abuse. As we read the poem we feel like interpreting it with a happier theme. However, an indirect analysis of the poem makes us highlight the emotional disturbing situation that is hidden there. The poem My Papas Waltz involves little bit of irony. Critics are unsure about the real theme of the poem. They interpret it in variety of ways. The interpretation of the poem is based on the readers perspective.  The poets revisions suggest that the poem need not be read exclusively as a positive or a negative portrait of this family moment. Surely this was a moment characterized by conflicting emotions for the speaker love and fright excitement and concern a rough tenderness.

The poem, according to many, is a time of happy exchange between a parent and child. The key word in the poem is romp. According to the poet, we romped until the pans  slid from the kitchen shelf (5-6). The very word romp is generally associated with boisterous, energetic and cheerful playing or dancing. This compels us to give a positive meaning to the happenings of the poem. It appears as if the boy and his father are having a nice time together. The very title of the poem My Papas Waltz makes us assign a happy theme for the poem. The word choices and the rhythm of the poem give us the feeling that the father is not rude or abusive, he is just drunk. The images used by the author supports this point of view. A direct interpretation of the poem using these images and words makes us believe that the poem is nothing more than a happy time shared between the father and the son. The child and the father are involved in a kind of waltz dance. In Waltz dance someone should lead the dance. Here in this poem we find that it is the father who is leading the child and he doesnt seem to have good control of his body. The very mood of dancing shows that the child loves his dad and he enjoys his time with dad. In the second stanza we find that they were having a careless dance. Their lack of control made the kitchen shelf and the pans slide. The speaker, the little child doesnt appear to give a negative meaning to the incident. He is a little child who is only able to consider it as a happy time with his father. The childs explanation of dancing makes us consider that a happy theme is more evident in My Papas Waltz.

The word choices made by the speaker of the poem would make us conclude that the speaker is explaining a pleasurable time in the poem. Words like clinging, romped, waltzing says that the waltz dance that they were having was pleasurable and happy. The speaker uses the word papa instead of using the word father. This makes us understand that they child was really fond of his father. He also seems to be devoted to his father that he enjoys having waltz dance with father. We find the words shirt, dirt in lines 14 and 16. These typical words are perfect end rhyme. Moreover, the alliteration used in line 4 gives us the impression that the sound of the waltz dance was tranquil and natural. In the line 9 the usage of the words hand, held reflects a tone of peace and gentleness. These protective sounds make us feel that the father was gentle towards his child. The impression of the child is as if he enjoys the nice time with his father. He cherished the time he spent at home with his father. Their romping along the house shows their playful spirit. The tone of the poem reveals the happy feelings of the speaker. The child doesnt appear to highlight the negative side of his father. He is rather explaining the cheerful time he had with his father.

My Papas Waltz is a poem that deals with the closeness between a father and his child. Even though the father is drunk, the child is still loving him and enjoying his presence. The childs positive attitude shows that even though the father was drunk he was not abusive. It doesnt seem that the father was purposefully hitting or abusing the child. The child never mentions that his father mistreated him. He just mentions that the father is drunk and therefore he fails to control his body. We find that the speaker is ending the waltz with peace, stability and comfort. He is going to bed still clinging to the shirt of his father. The waltz dance doesnt appear to end abruptly. It seems that the child and the father end the dance, peacefully withdrawing to the bed. The child would have withdrawn from the dance if the father was abusing him while dancing. Here the child was rather clinging to his father for he enjoyed dancing with his father. Even though the child admits that his father was drunk he never says that his father abused him. Even though the child is little troubled by the unstable state of his father, he is not frustrated or unhappy with dancing with his father. He doesnt seem to hate his father. He rather enjoys the dance with his father.

2nd interpretation
Despite its seeming lightness, My Papas Waltz is a poem of terror, all the more terrible because the boy is frightened and hurt by the father, even in play. We romped, the poet says, but the romp is a dizzying succession of painful glimpses the house is shaking, the mother is frowning, the fathers hand is scarred by violence, every misstep in the dance scrapes the fathers belt buckle painfully across the boys ear, and the boys head is being pounded by that huge, hard palm. It is a romp, but the boy must cling like death until he is finally dumped into bed (Fong). The very term the whiskey on your breath shows the alcohol abuse of the father in the poem. The author of the poem wonderfully captures the chaos in the family. The alcoholic father beats up the child and the vessels and pans is thrown to the floor in the kitchen. The author also introduces the mother who looks upon the messy scene. It appears as if the mother could just watch the entire scene with a saddened face. The third paragraph of the poem contains disturbing and unpleasant words. In the third stanza we find that the father has a bruised knuckle and the childs ear rubs on his fathers belt buckle when he misses his steps. The author explains the knuckle as battered. This is a very important word in the poem as the word battered shows the proof of prior physical pain. The bruised knuckle also shows that the father is back at home after a bar fight. He is holding his sons wrist instead of holding his land in love. The fourth paragraph also deals with the harsh treatments of the parents towards his son. The very word clinging on the last paragraph says that the boy is clinging to save himself from the torment. There is no way for the miserable boy to fight back. Clinging is the only response from the child. The narrator is focused on events associated with the beatings rather than focusing on the emotions or the nature of the father. His words reflect the abuse and the sufferings caused by his father. According to Ronald Janssen the poems energy comes from dual vectors of feeling, that is, light-hearted and grimmer. He concludes that the poem ends with a primarily negative texture portraying a drunken father, angry mother, and desperate child who have a desperate hope for some fun in the face of a real fear of violence and disruption.