When I first read the poem, "My Papa's Waltz" by Theodore Roethke, I wasn't sure what the two meanings could be. One meaning really stood out to me the most, but as i read it a couple of times, I figured out what the second meaning of the poem could possible be.
The first meaning I got right away was that the speaker was that the speaker was being abused by his father. The first stanza to me just stood out the way he was talking about smelling the whiskey coming off his breathe and saying "But I hung on like death". Even saying that the kind of waltzing that his father did wasn't easy, the thought of abuse came into my mind. I also think that because of my past and certain situations that have happened that I had that biased point of view so I continued reading. "My mother's countenance/could not unfrown itself" I interpreted as that the mother wasn't happy of what the father did to him but she didn't do anything about it. The last stanza really hit me hard. The whole poem to me was just sad and depressing because I got the impression that his father was a drunk and would beat and hit him until he would take him to bed. But I did read it a couple times more to find another meaning.
The speaker's choice of words had me thinking of another meaning of the poem. The way the speaker was hanging on and "still clinging to your shirt", I took it as that even though he was an abusive father,he still had hope and love for him despite everything that was happening. That maybe he knew it was the whiskey that was making him like that and not him actually that the whiskey changed his personality. Because he still loved his father that that is why he was describing the abuse as a sort of dance.
The title "My Papa's Waltz" right off the bat can suggest that the speaker believes it is his father's abuse is a dance. "Waltzing wasn't easy/every step you missed/ then waltzing me off to bed" are some word choices that uses dance as a way him and his father were with each other. Him and his father have this routine that they have that they are with each other just like how a dance is a routine. That the abuse happens all the time and is repetitive and a routine just like how learning steps to a dance is. Maybe the boy blocks the image of abuse with his father and sees it as they are doing a dance together. The third stanza can suggest that its a small boy dancing in front of his father by the line where it says that when he missed a step his ear would scrap the buckle as if he was as tall as where his belt buckle was and would hit him when a step was missed.
To me this speaker was expressing a lot of emotion and mixed feelings. That even though he had to deal with his father being drunk and abusive, he still has a lot of love for him by not letting him go and holding on to him. He to me was a scared boy and blocked out the image of being abused as the time with his father being a dance. It was an interesting poem that really hit me and understood the meaning of this poem.
Taylor, I really liked this poem as well and this is the poem that I did my blog on. I think that the majority of the class is going to do their blogs on, "My Papa's Waltz", by Theodore Roethke. My first impression was the same as yours with the feeling that this poem was about an abusive alcoholic father towards his young son. Some of the lines sound so terrible I can understand why it is would be so easy to interpret the poem as child abuse. For example, "At every step that you missed/My right ear scraped a buckle" (11-12). But then I re-read, and re-read and now I feel that this poem can be interpreted another way. Maybe the boy's father is an alcoholic that has a passion for the Waltz and makes his son dance with him while he is intoxicated. After all he is a young boy who really doesn't have any control over the matter. Here's a great example, "The whiskey on your breath/Could make a small boy dizzy;/But I hung on like death:/Such walzting was not easy" (1-4). The walzting isn't easy for the boy because more than likely the boy's father had a bit too much to drink and is scaring his son so that his son has to hold on tightly "like death". You did a great job Taylor!
ReplyDeleteTaylor .. I like your response and I realize that the father did not make a good choice by doing the Waltz with his young son and dragging him all around, however, I did not get that the boy hated it either. I felt that it was something that they do quite often even a ritualistic event. The way he spoke of the mothers "unfrowned" lips was as if she was use to it and and it made her unhappy each time. I know that I have had drunk family members and I loved them very much as a child I did not know they were acting inappropriately. This poem is very thought provoking and your blog was great.
ReplyDeleteTaylor, I enjoyed reading your analysis of the poem “My Papa’s Waltz “by Theodore Roosevelt. I also interpreted the same two meanings from the poem. The boy has become so used to his father’s abuse, that he begins to view this dance as the only moment that his father shows affection towards him. I also found this poem very depressing, and I was affected deeply by it. The way in which he describes his mother’s response, also led me to believe that this dance was a routine that the young boy did with his father often. This was one of favorite poems that we have been assigned, and our analysis was great.
ReplyDelete