“My Papa’s Waltz” by Theodore Roethke

Author Theodore Roethke was born in Saginaw, Michigan, in 1908, and attended the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.  He had a rather difficult, lonely childhood. When he was 14, his father died of cancer.  Mr. Roethke developed a fascination with gangsters.  He was considered to be eccentric and nonconformist.    During his adult life, he suffered many mental breakdowns. 

 

The whiskey on your breath

Could make a small boy dizzy;

But I hung on like death:

Such waltzing was not easy.

 

We romped until the pans

Slid from the kitchen shelf;

My mother’s countenance

Could not unfrown itself.

 

The hand that held my wrist

Was battered on one knuckle;

At every step you missed

My right ear scraped a buckle.

 

You beat time on my head

With a palm caked hard by dirt,

Then waltzed me off to bed

Still clinging to your shirt.

 

This intriguing poem entitled My Papa’s Waltz is quite emotionally charged with its implications.  The speaker is a young boy who tells us rather meekly about an encounter with his father who had been drinking.   The speaker does not place direct blame on his father.  However, through word choice and placement, the reader can sense the boy’s uneasiness and fear of the situation.   The setting of this poem is in the family home where intoxicated “Papa” waltzes around awkwardly and rather dangerously with the young boy.  The speaker states that “such waltzing was not easy.”  In the second stanza, the boy tells how they “romped until the pans slid from the kitchen shelf.”   This seems like quite an understatement.  The boy’s mother is watching the shenanigans; although she is frowning, she appears passive and does not take action to stop this sad interaction between her husband and her son. 

 

            The word choices in the poem hint at possible abuse with the boy being whisked to and fro by a drunken person.   The speaker tells about his right ear scraping a buckle with every step his father missed in this waltz.  The boy was obviously being hurt but did not directly state that this was his father’s fault.   He communicates to us how his father “beat time” on his head; he doesn’t come out and say that his father beat/hit him. 

            The tone/attitude of this poem is submissive on the boy’s part.  He timidly waltzes with his father and doesn’t protest.    The little boy seems almost like a doll flopping around awkwardly during the dance.   Every other line in the four-line stanzas rhyme.  The word choices in this poem emit powerful, rather disturbing images.