My Papa's Waltz

This is a great poem. What it's about is debatable. Obviously it's about a boy and his father. But what is their relationship? Some see it as abusive. The father is drunk: "The whiskey on your breath" and he is beating his son: "You beat time on my head." These are just a couple examples to support the abusive relationship claim. However, I initially read it as much more loving. As boy, standing on his father's feet, dancing around the room with him. Crashing and banging in fun, with maybe a little fear because the father is so much bigger. There is whiskey on his breath yes, but does it have to be much to make a small boy dizzy? It is a very interesting poem indeed. A great one to use if you want to teach someone about poetry interpretation.

There is certainly nothing "wrong" with different interpretations. Personally, I don't make the abuse correlation, and certainly see no evidence of sexual abuse. Evident from the word choice in the line "At every step you missed My right ear scraped a buckle," I see it as a playful bedtime ritual. The syntax here should help channel our feeling of the poem and what we think about the "waltz". Had he written "a buckle scrape my right ear" there would be a genuine concern for the child. I don't know if you ever "waltzed" on your father's feet, or had your children on your feel, but children often cling on for dear life. You know, as if the floor is quicksand, alligators etc. "Such waltzing was not easy" for the child to hold on, nor for the father to walk with the child on his feet. And as far as the line "You beat time on my head," I see it as just holding just a musical connotation.

I believe that in this poem the narrator is remembering an abusive cildhood, although Roethke never directly states this.
The very tight structured format in which the peom was written - 4 stanza's; iambic pentameter - leads me to beleive that the auther still has not yet fully delt with the emotions associated with an abusive father, and so he tries to conceal them from himself via the tight structure of the poem, and perhaps from the reader as well.
He does give you clues to the fact that abuse did occur however. For example, when the narrator says that the hand that held his wrist was battered on one knuckle, i immediately thought of the fact that when you punch someone, your knuckles do often bruise.
His mother's countenance could not unfrown itself because no mother happily watches her son being abused, and maybe she thought that she was next.
When he says that his father beat time on his head, i took this line to mean that his father constantly abused him day in and day out. The last two lines of the poem to me perfectly reflects the mindset of a child being abused by a parent- regardless of the pain, you still love that parent and will continue to be dependent on that parent, eventually you may even begin to believe that you were deserving of the abuse.

“ My Papa’s Waltz” about ( I believe) abusive father. The tone of the poem is pretty strained. On the face of it, it seems that author talks about him and his father having a romp, as a game:he put this “ My mother’s countenance Could not unfrown itself.” But later is “ You beat time on my head…” It’s definitely about regular beating. “ With a palm caked hard by dirt”. I saw an anger in that poem that remained in this author. The poem ends with unfinished battle “Then waltzed me off to bed still clinging to your shirt.” ”. I was wondered, why author died being pretty young. So, I found that Theodore Roethke was a heavy drinker and died of a heard attack. It tells me he kept his anger for father for years. He calls it My Papa's waltz- it sound to me as a sarcastic title.

at first i was confused,when i read this poem in school,however in reading some of the comments that was posted before ,i was able to see through the poem more clearly ,and will like to help others who are getting dificulty with it.
in the first stanza of the poem,i analysed it to mean that the effect of the father's behaviour on the boy makes him skeptical in that if he stops dancing,the father might react badly and he wants to be bonded with his father. then in the second stanza,in the lines which state that 'my mother's countenance could not unfrown itself',this simply means that the mother isolates herself from the dancing excitement ,and was angry at the father but did not want to show it since he was drunk.
then in the penultimate stanza when the poet writes that at every step you missed your right ear scraped a buckle,it means that he was short compared to the father and that he got pain,but still enjoyed the dancing.i find this to be quite ironic.
lastly,you beat time on my head meant that this was the rhythm the father gave to the boy when they danced,and i believe it does not has any abusive connotations to it,as the time was beat on his head as he was relatively short compared to the father.the palm caked hard lastly means that,the father was a field labourer.

This poem is NOT about abuse or alcoholism. Keep in mind that this poem was written in the year 1948. Looking back to the movies of the 40s and 50s as well as the sitcoms from the 50s such as "I Love Lucy" you will see a pattern of alcohol consumption being associated with comedy - not abuse. I think that the first line of this poem being read in modern times causes the tone of the poem to be taken out of context (especially in America) because our generation has been taught that drug and alcohol use only leads to misery. However, that was not the message of this poet who died in 1963.

Roethke's father owned a greenhouse. Although he was a stern man, Roethke and his father are reported to have had a good relationship. Roethke's father died when he was only 14 years old, and I think that this poem was written based upon a childhood memory of his father returning home from working in the greenhouse, after he had relaxed and had a drink or two which relaxed him. The fact that the father's hand was "battered on one knuckle" indicates that he was a hard working man, and "with a palm caked hard by dirt" reflects his father's work with the plants in the greenhouse.

There have been analyses of the rough drafts of Roethke's poem which show that the poet deliberately chose ambiguous words so that the feelings they would instill in the reader would not be precise. Unfortunately, this seems to make modern day readers believe there is abuse occurring in this poem. However, there is no evidence that the father is purposely mistreating the son, there is only evidence of rough play - but happy rough play. The father dances sloppily and misses some steps which inadvertently causes a belt buckle to scrape the child's ear, but the father didn't intentionally hurt him. The ambiguity that I believe this poet was striving for was to show that this enjoyable interaction between father and son ranges from delight to a small amount of fear - the type of fear that we may feel on a fast rollercoaster ride (the good kind that provides a little adrenalin rush).

When the father "beat time" on the boy's head Roethke deliberately chooses the word "beat" over the words "kept time" (per his rough drafts) most likely to increase the intensity of the interaction, but should not be mistaken to mean that the boy was beaten by his father or was hurt in any way.

What about the mother? Would a mother merely maintain a frown if the father was abusing the son? Wouldn't there be tears in her eyes, a cry of protest, something besides a description indicating that her face "could not unfrown itself?" Mom merely wishes that the rough play would end because they are knocking over pans and it is the child's bedtime. What mother doesn't tell a father to stop winding the children up just before bedtime?

The son enjoys the father's rough play. So much so that when it comes to an end and the father waltzes him off to bed, the son clings to the father's shirt because he does not want the good time to end.

My advice is that the reader should minimize the effect that the whiskey in the first line has on their perceptions of this poem. Not every man who has a glass of whiskey should be labeled a drunk, an alcoholic, or abusive. The scent of alcohol on someone's breath doesn't even mean that they are drunk or under the influence of alcohol, it only means that they had a drink. There's no crime in that, is there?

I believe that this poem My Papa's Waltz By: Theodore Roethke is not a sad story of a father that is abusive. Its a mere story of a dad who has had a few to many drinks and he and the little boy are just having a good time, playing around or rough housing. As for "We romped until the pan slid from the kitchen shelf" I believe that the boy and his father had just gotten out of hand and knocked over a few dishes which made the mother mad because possibly she had just cleaned the kitchen and now they were dirting it up again, which explains " My mother's countance could not unfrown itself." These are my views having to write on this topic for a thesis.

Sara Bunemann
(9th Grader at North Carolina School of the Arts)

Alissa, the poem wasn't DUMB, it was just not the kind of poetry we prefer. Although, making us spend a week analyzing it certainly doesn't make me like it any more. I think the father IS abusive, but that the boy loves him anyway, and the father isn't abusing him during the waltz as you seem to be thinking, but that the father has abused him in past, and the boy is happy he is not being abused at the present time. He loves his father, though the father treats him poorly, and he (the son) is glad to be spending time with his father, regardless of how he came by it (in this case, the father becoming drunk). Thus, he "holds on like death" and "cling[s] to [the] shirt." Haha, you used a "on one hand" and an "on the other hand," like she told us to. Now THERE'S something that deserves to be called dumb!

Waltzing with Papa- All the way through Life
Thesis on My Papa's Waltz
Mr. Bohannon
English 1
NCSA

Many believe that "My Papa's Waltz" simply depicts a happy evening in this young boy's life. However, there is a much more significant meaning. By looking closely at Roethke’s word choice and the images that they create, you can see that this poem reveals more than just dancing- you can see that Roethke uses this memory as a tool for retelling the story of his life in a simple poem.
To begin examining word choice, why is the title “My Papa’s Waltz”? A waltz is a dance for two people, so a more logical title would be “Waltzing with Papa” or perhaps even “Our Waltz”. The title is not even neutral- it could not be intended to mean that they are dancing together. It is very clearly the father’s, and it is as though he is dancing without concern for his young partner.
The poem begins with “The whiskey on your breath/ could make a small boy dizzy” (1.1-2). These lines imply that the father is drunk, and that this is his way of escaping from his hard life. The papa’s work was running two large greenhouses, says Linda Walker of Theodore Roethke, Michigan's Poet and it was a very high stress job. The fact that it is a tough, dirty job is expresses by his saying “The hand that held my wrist/ was battered on one knuckle” (3.1-2) and also “A hand caked hard by dirt” (4.2). This makes a point of showing how hard the father worked. We know that his job occasionally resulted in small injuries and always dirty hands. This tells that the father was not in an office all day- his hands were scarred from hard labor.
Before further exploring the father, we must take a look at the mother, Helen. Although she is only mentioned briefly, her presence makes a great impact on the poem. Linda Walker (Theodore Roethke, Michigan's Poet) writes that when Helen's “countenance could not unfrown itself”, her feelings were because her son was a very sickly child who suffered from hay fever, was forever sneezing, and had to sleep with his head completely wrapped. Also, her husband, Otto, was diagnosed with cancer, and the family was devasted (Walker). Her world was falling apart, and that is expressed in the second stanza: “The pan slid from the kitchen shelf”. Her life is becoming very hard, as she is now having to run half of her husband's portion (his brother, who was the co-owner, took the other half). She was having to sustain the family, while trying to help run a business. She was not angry because she didn't want her husband and son to have a good time, it was because of these concerns.
Mrs. Roethke, Theodore and his younger sister, June, "hung on like death" (1.3) to Mr. Roethke. Eventually, after a long battle with cancer, though, he died. I think that he showed this well in the last stanza. "You waltzed me off to bed/ still clinging to your shirt." (4.3-4) He is saying that his father meant a lot to him, that he was very attached, and that he was not an abusive father, like some readers would think at a first glance. This figruative way of speaking is really quite beautiful, and the only real way to read the poem. Roethke once told the Saginaw News "Any serious writer uses imagery he saw and heard and felt about in his youth." (Walker) This is the imagery that is most vivid to him. He is using it to express what love he had for his father. It is a story of love, not abuse, not just waltzing, and it was written as a memorial to his father, whose waltz inspired his love.

Although I am a little confused how the author felt about his father, I like "My Papa's
Waltz" very much. My first impression of the poem is that is flows easily from the tongue.
To me, how smooth a poem sounds when read aloud, is very important. This poem is so
nicely done, in such a matter, that the rhythm is impeccable. What the author is trying to
convey in the poem's meaning is confusing. In the first stanza, when the boy says he
held on "like death," I feel a small sense of fear towards his drunken father. But the last
line, "Still clinging to your shirt," causes me to contradict this fear. I believe the young
boy loved everything about his father except his drunkeness'. I think the boy had mixed
feelings about the "waltzing," but at the end of each night when his father put him to bed,
he still loved him very much. I believe this is the overall message the poem is trying to
express.

In all the comments on this poem that I have read here, nobody has mentioned the recurring image of the HANDS of the father: "the hand that held my wrist was battered on one knuckle"; "a palm caked hard by dirt".
It's common knowledge that an abused child will often draw pictures of men with huge hands. The child is obviously obsessed with his father's hands. I see this poem as a written version of an abused child's drawing. We also have the words "belt", "beat time", "battered", "the hand that held my wrist", all of which connote violence and abuse towards the child.
We even have the passive mother, standing and watching helplessly as her husband and son "waltz", too afraid of the father to intervene, afraid it's her turn next? I agree that there is a playful, very loving tone which counterbalances this undertone of violence: "romped,"
"still clinging to your shirt", the use of the affectionate term "papa." However, I see this poem as a memory of a child who loves his father, wants his father's attention desperately, and is ready to take it whenever and however it is given. The father may well be simply be roughhousing with his little boy here in this particular instance, and the physical and emotional pain the boy is experiencing is because the father is too drunk and too out of control to realize that he's hurting his son. But I see the violent, dark words as his subconscious filtering through the wishful thinking and idealization of his father and their relationship. Who doesn't repress memories that are too painful to deal with?

I think this is a reall good poem and frankly i don't really like poetry. I am doing a poetry analysis of this for school and this is kinda wut i came up with. I think the waltz is a symbol for his life, and where it says "at every step he missed....." i think that when the father does something not so good that the little boy(or girl) pays for it. It's word choice plays a big role in this poem, he uses romp as a more playful term but then the imagery is ruff ie. "hand caked with dirt" and "beat time on my head", this suggest that the father is abusive and the lines "my mothers frown".... shows rthat she diaproves but can't do anything about it. At the end we see that th boy truly loves his father by clinging on his shirt.

I think that people are analyzing this poem too much. I don't think that it is about an abusive father rather a playful and loving father. I really love the third stanza, 'The hand that held my wrist was battered on one knuckle; At every step you missed My right ear scraped a buckle.' This gave me the impression that the father was a hard worker. Some sort of laborer, maybe he worked on the dock's or building bridges (I get the feeling that this poem takes place in the great depressin.) This poem is being said through the eyes of a young boy; a small boy, maybe even a boy who is about as tall as his father's belt buckle! His father is not intentionally beating him or abusing him. The father is indeed somewhat drunk, we can understand that from the first line, therefore he is going to be a little sloppy. The father and son are just having a good time, dancing and laughing. The little boy notices that his fathers knuckles are battered. And every time his father would 'miss a step', lose count of his waltz, the boy's ear would scrape up against his belt buckle. I don't see this poem as abuse at all.

I have heard comments from the author from professors that he was very upset that anyone would get the picture of abuse out to the poem. I know at frist that that is what I saw because that is what I was taught that it was about abuse. Then in another class we discussed it and the prof argued that it was about rouh housing after a hard days work and yes were the father was a little drunk, it was probably just him hanging out with his buddies before coming home. THe mother in the background that is mentioned is more then likely upset becuase she was trying to put her son to bed when the dad comes in late and starts to get him hipper again. Plus she now has to clean up her kitchen because they are knocking thins down. The dad watlzing the son of to his bed and the kid hanging on to his shirt is because he does not want to go to bed he wants to stay up adn hangout with his dad who he hasn't seen all day because he's been at work.

It's nice to hear people's opinions on the poem, it's just sad that some people go straight to abuse before they go to the love a son for his father and visa versa

I love this poem because it can be taken very literally, and at the same time figuratively or symbolically. You can really picture the kid holding on to his father for dear life, being slung around the room. And if that's the only thing you got out of the poem it would be enough. Almost everyone has had the experience of being danced around by a parent, grandparent, or older sibling. It's a nice bit of nostalgia. On the opther hand, life is a dance, it's what and who you are in relation to other people. Your father (or whoever) takes a step, you make a counter move. He misses a step, you didn't predcit it and you get stepped on or "scraped." And there are people in the background watching and judging. Your life , your waltz, your relationships will certainly not be all smooth- there will be bumps and rough spots, but in the end, you wouldn't want to miss it. So the scariness and the scrapes are tolerable because the dance itself is so darn fun! I think it's about taking the good with the bad. Or maybe even showing how much we will tolerate because of love.

In my first 'speed' read of the poem "My Papa's Waltz' I negatively percieved and interpreted this piece of poetry to have been written on the basis of child abuse. I thought to myself, now, this just can't be right so, I reread the poem the way it must be read, at a 'slower pace in feeling the literary works' -- then to interpret a positive 'blissful' time shared between father and son. The father and son had spent much time 'daily' together in the greenhouse in which reveals to me that the two had a close and bonded relationship. Also I have thoroughly researched Theodore Roethke's Life, Career, Poetry and Timeline in which there are no words that reveal any form of domestic violence and/or child abuse in Roethke's life. Plus, Theodore was extremely close to his father and terribly jarred by his father's death. In addition, I percieve a tired papa coming into the home, after a hard days work out in his greenhouse, 'with palm caked hard by dirt' hands; after dark. I think 'whiskey on his breath could make a small boy dizzy' is merely the act of papa taking a shot of whiskey to relax after work in which does not mean the father is a drunken sot. The odor of whiskey would be strong to a non drinker and a small child. Also, In male rough-housed play the father and son danced 'Papa's Waltz' around the room in papa giving his son maculine 'quality time' prior to getting him off to bed. The Mother frowned with disapproval by the rough play and noise, however, she said nothing to disturb the father and son's joyful dance; for boys will be boys. Finally, the 'beat time on my head' is basically a pat of a strong man's hand on a small boy's head -- telling his son playtime is over and it's time for bed. Futhermore, the child would not be 'clinging' to his papa's shirt if he were being abused. He would urgently be trying to 'get away' from his papa.

With ‘My Papa’s Waltz’ you are personally left to unlock to the abuse between the father and son. What seems as a fun playful poem is quickly dissolved by the underlying child neglect.

With the “The whiskey on your breath”, “hung on like death”, “the pans,
Slid from the kitchen shelf”, “hand that held my wrist, Was battered on one knuckle”, “My right ear scraped a buckle”, “beat time” lines I came to the resolved deduction that this was not all fun.

I had the impression the last line of the poem, "waltzed me off to bed still clinging to your shirt" infers the boy’s dependency on his father. I still had the impression that the relationship was still partially based on love, but more of a reluctant, irresolute love.

This is one of my all time favorite poems. It depicts the abuse ‘behind closed doors’ it gives anyone who’s familiar with a love/hate relationship enthralled with the maltreatment as a child. It perfectly illustrates the story of a father and son, a son who powerlessly put up with his father.

Look, I believe everyone has the right to their own interpretations, but sometimes wrong is just wrong. This is NOT a poem about abuse. First, whiskey on the breath does NOT equal being a "drunk." Second, the FATHER is the one with the bruises and scars, NOT the child. His knuckle is scraped, and his hands are caked with dirt because he's been working. If he'd been habitually beating the child, wouldn't more than one knuckle be scraped? He's had a drink (or several) so he's not too coordinated and stumbles. Picture your drunk relative at a wedding reception and you'll have the perfect visual. Appropriate? Maybe not. Abusive? Of course not. To continue: the kid's ear scrapes the buckle because he's SHORT. The dad's playing a little rough because ... well, he's a DAD. We hear "beat time" and don't connect it to the dance and the idea of tapping out a rhythm (which, by the way, is reflected in the meter). We immediately go to abuse. How sad... and what a sad comment on society when we immediately think the worst in a situation. And, by the way, the mom is frowning because they're messing up the kitchen (can't believe no on got that). And the sexual abuse... if you get sexual abuse from from "waltzed me off to bed"... you're sick. Would you get the same connotation from "flew me to bed like Superman"? How about "flung me onto the bed like a sack of potatoes"? I think a few people got a limited lesson in diction from their English teachers and took it a little to far. Isolated words and phrases do not make meaning -- they enhance it. Sometimes, when you are trying to find a deep or hidden meaning in a poem, it's better to miss the boat than to jump wildly after it and drown.

i believe you are all wrong, the poem was about a father who enjoyed a little drink, came home and attempted to engage in a little play time with his young son. one must remember that the poem was written in 1948. at that time a working class man having a drink after work was nothing out of the ordinary. incidentally the bruised and battered knuckle and palm caked hard with dirt suggest that the father is a hard working man. as to that comment about sexual violation...WTF!??! thats insane...and then going so far as to say "if you dig a little deeper" as if its the truth..again WTF... and no that does not stand for world taekwondo federation(at least not in this context) ....anyway in my opinion the waltz was a harmless evening time romp that the father shared with his son, the only time he could see him in the short hours between the time he was home and his son's bedtime....

.......sexual violation...wtf kinda sicko sees that in this kind of poem? i mean physical abuse is one thing, but good lord. how could anyone see ass perforation in such an innocent poem?!

I am actually doing an essay on poem and choice Papa's Waltz for the imagery of it. I dont see at all abuse child or etc... I see a hard working couple in hard time at the begining of lot thing in the New world. This hard man with hurting hand ``battered on one knuckle'' try to be sweet and share his time with is soon and share some education in same time. Dance, folk music such as waltz is a cultural heritage that my parents such as europeen parents teached me, so why not this man. I saw a cabane, with hard worker couple and a kids enjoy doing something easy for adult even with a couple of whiskey glass. This kids is not yet tall enough to be able to do the move without be hurt (gently) by a simple buckle that is on the way. I don,t see any meaning of child abuse. If I hurt my feet when I hurt the table feet should I call that a child abuse because my parents by a table and put it on my way? We should think about the context and not the paranioac TV.

i believe this poem is about the period in roethkes life where his father became ill. he loved his father no matter if he was abused or not he spent most of his time with him at their greenhouse. his father was diagnosed with cancer so his father began to drink heavily for he knew he was going to die and roethke expressed this in the line "but i hung on like death such a waltz was not easy" because coping with the inevitable fact that he would die was not easy. and yet they made the best of it. but his mother couldnt wipe off her frown for it was too hard for her to pretend. and he even throws in his fathers conflict with his uncle (who killed himself right before his father died) by showing how his father had a battered knuckle. and then in the end the boy was clinging to his fathers shirt because he wasnt ready to let him go. basically he didnt want his father to die