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My Papa's Waltz by Theodore Roethke

            "My Papa's Waltz" is a poem that can be viewed with two completely opposite views, one as positive and the other as negative. The basic theme of the poem is the waltz with the drunken father. From reading the poem for the first time it seems that the waltz with the father was a very unpleasant event. The words that the writer used reinforced my thoughts, "death", "romped", and "dirt"; all these were not pleasant imagery. Therefore I viewed the poem negatively and thought that the boy would think the waltz with his father as a very uncomfortable but unforgettable memory. .
             But reading the poem again I see that the poem can also be interpreted as the boy enjoying the waltz because he was stilling "clinging on the shirt" when he was off to bed. This clinging could mean that he wanted to waltz more. So, the meaning of the poem is unclear. But I think that the writer wanted to write down his memory of dancing with his father although it might have been unpleasant at the time it is now a memorable memory of the time he spent with his father. .
             The structure of the poem seems to be in rhyme because the first four lines he made the last words rhyme every other line "breath" and "death" "dizzy" and "easy". Then for the middle stanzas he rhymed every other line and the last stanza he went back to like the first stanza. Besides the rhyme it seems the structure of the poem is like a waltz, the steps of it. The lines go back and forth which is very interesting. .
            


Essays Related to My Papa's Waltz by Theodore Roethke

1. Explication- MY Papas Waltz

Theodore Roethke's "My Papa's Waltz" is a fixed form poem of sixteen lines. Roethke created the rhyme scheme abab, cdcd, efef, ghgh. Roethke uses this rhyme scheme to make it sound as if the poem is a waltz. The rhyme scheme gives the poem a beat. Each stanza is made up of four lines, which the first and third lines rhyme, and the second and fourth lines rhyme. The poem, in first person point of view, describes a small boy who is dancing with his drunken father in the kitchen. The small boy's mother is upset with the father (7-8). The images in the poem include the boy's father stumbling aroun...

  • Word Count: 278
  • Approx Pages: 1
  • Grade Level: High School

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