Theodore Roethke My Papa Waltz

¶ … Papa's Waltz": Hints of Child Abuse or Suggestions of the Pains of a Hard Life? Theodore Roethke's piece, "My Papa's Waltz," is a perfect example of the different interpretations that can come from a single work of poetry.

The phrasing, at times, suggest that there are instances of child abuse, while at the same time, others could claim that it is simply a glimpse into a moment of time that a father spends with his son prior to bed time -- whisky simply being a numbing to the pains of life.

Kerry Michael Wood describes it best when he says that, "Roethke would be pleasantly surprised to know that his poem has become a generational litmus test - an almost sure-fire means of determining the age of the poem's readers" (Wood, 1).

Members of "Generation X," along with those who can relate to this era, have a tendency to take a literal understanding at the use of certain words or phrases, while those who are of an older generation see the figurative meaning behind these same words; and it is interesting to see the comparisons and contrasts that relate to both understandings of the words being used in this piece.

Roethke craftily begins his writing by mentioning that "the whisky on your breath could make a small boy dizzy; but I hung on like death: such waltzing was not easy," and right at the beginning, the mood has been set, and it is up to the reader to determine the meaning behind this phrasing.

For many people in today's society, seeing that a father is heavily influenced with alcohol in front of his child could mean nothing more than the father is an obvious "alcoholic." Media and irresponsible adults have tarnished the image of alcohol, and have given nothing but a bad impression from the beginning. However, if one were to take a careful consideration of the author and when it was written, a different picture would become clearer to them.

This is an image of a father, tired from a long day's work, who happened to drown his sorrows in whiskey (an indication of the time period), and the engagement with his small boy was a treasured ritual, as the boy did not want to let go of his father, as he "hung on like death: such waltzing was not easy." The second stanza offers a slight disapproval from the man's wife, but it is simply because they are being so clumsy, in a drunken, but happy engagement that it is causing the pans to fall off of a shelf.

Again, members of today's society would see this as the father was being so rough with his son, that pans were falling from where they sat; however, the more likely of cases is that the father and son perhaps became a little too rowdy as they "romped until the pans slid from the kitchen shelf." Roethke continues his story in his third stanza, and again, the wording in this stanza could paint an alarming picture in some people's heads.

The young boy mentions that his father's "hand that held [his] wrist was battered on one knuckle," and this suggests a history of child abuse so severe that his father has bruised/cut open his knuckle; however, it is more believable that the father's hands have seen a lifetime of hard work, physical labor that causes his knuckles to be tattered.

The stanza finishes off by saying that every step that the father missed in their waltz (or game), the boy's "right ear scraped a buckle." This phrase shows that the boy is so in love with having a father play with him, offer him attention even after a hard day's work, that he doesn't mind the uneasiness of his father's footsteps, he just wants to be near him.

Roethke finishes his work in his last stanza by saying that the father "beat time on [his] head with a palm cracked hard by dirt," suggesting that the father stressed the importance of living for the moment in his childhood, because soon life will catch up, and hard work will soon follow, as seen in his father's hands. Then the father.