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Memories of Papa

            In the poem "My Papa's Waltz" by Theodore Roethke, one man recalls some of his childhood memories. I think that this poem tells us about a darker memory a little boy has of his father. This man recalls his dad as a hard working man, who comes home every night, gets a glass of whiskey and tries to relax after a hard working day. This poem shows how much this little boy loves his father and how he hung on to him no matter how difficult it is. .
             The fist two lines of this poem show me that this is not one of the happy memories that any little boy would have: "The whiskey on your breath / Could make a small boy dizzy" (1-2). In the next two lines he says that he had to "hung on like death" (3) and that was not easy for him at that time. He chose the word "death" and this word doesn't usually go with happy memories. Then this man talks a little about his unhappy mother, and how kids were playing and making a lot noise and mess: "We romped until the pans / Slid from the kitchen shelf" (5-6). The expression on his moms face: "Could not unfrown itself" (8), tells that she is a tired, too. Papa was a working man whose hand: "Was battered on one knuckle" (10). Every step papa missed this boy's right ear got scraped by a buckle on his papa's belt. This man was a little 8-10 years old boy at that time, since his ear was on the same level as his dad's belt. "a palm caked hard by dirt" (14), tells that papa was a middle class working man, he worked somewhere where his hands were in dirt. In the last two lines of the poem you can feel that this little boy was emotionally attached to his Papa. Caring father takes his little boy to bed, and boy didn't want to let go: "clinging to you skirt" (16), probably cause he wanted to spend more time with his working papa. .
             I think that this poem talks about darker memories of this man's childhood. The choice of words tells me that this is a dark memory.


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