My Papa's Waltz by Theodore Roethke: Poem Analysis

Introduction

Theodore Roethke's 16-line, four-stanza poem tells the story of a small boy's father waltzing him to bed. The father is a laborer — a working-class man — whose breath smells of whiskey. The father joyfully, and with much romping, drunkenly dances with his son, clearly in a good mood thanks to the spirits he has imbibed. The mother stands off and frowns, particularly because the romping creates such commotion that the dishes in the kitchen are falling from their places. The big man of a father is oblivious to the displeasure of the mother as well as the nervousness of the boy, who is essentially clinging to his father for dear life as the big man whirls about. It is a lively and affectionate short poem — a glimpse into the living room of a family where, for a brief moment, a burst of joyful, drunken energy possesses Papa and carries both him and the boy off to bed. The poem is told through the boy's eyes. This essay summarizes the poem, provides a brief analysis, describes the characters, identifies the main theme, and discusses elements of imagery and symbolism.

The poem is told in the first person and addressed to the father, who is spoken to in the second person — "you" — as though the poem were written as a kind of love letter or ode to Papa. It begins not with a description of the father's appearance, his occupation, or his ideas, but rather with a description of the man's breath: it smells of whiskey. This is the type of detail that a boy would notice and remember — the strong odor of alcohol on the breath of the merry man.

Summary of the Poem

The odor, so typically associated with drunkenness and full of negative connotations, is not linked to anything negative in this particular poem. On the contrary, the odor is almost like the smell of incense at a religious rite, announcing something positive about to take place. Here the odor announces that a special waltz is underway. The whiskey loosens up the father's limbs and puts him in a festive mood. The boy is there and serves as a willing enough partner, hanging "on like death" because dancing with his father in this manner "was not easy."

Indeed, it is not even much of a formal dance: the poet describes it more as a romp, which raises such a ruckus that it shakes the walls and clamors the pots. This disturbance evokes a negative reaction from the mother, who would prefer peace and quiet in her home — though her approach to a bedtime routine is clearly different from the father's.

From the odor of the man's breath to the waltz itself, to a description of the larger room and the mother observing from the side, the poem returns to an up-close and personal description of the action: the father's hand, the boy's wrist, the man's knuckle and step, the boy's ear and the man's buckle. These minute details bring the reader back in tight and close once more. After a quick spin around the room, attention is pulled back to the main source of action.

The meter of the poem is then mirrored by the father's keeping of time by beating on the boy's head with his dirt-caked palm, which indicates that the man is a manual laborer of some kind. The theme of waltzing returns in the final stanza as the boy is literally waltzed off to bed while clinging to his father's shirt.

The use of first- and second-person pronouns makes the poem particularly intimate. The author is speaking to his father, writing as an adult — a grown man himself — but reflecting on the past and addressing Papa (itself an affectionate term) in a familiar manner. However, one of the more troubling aspects of the poem for some readers is the tension created by the description of the father's whiskey breath, the rough-house nature of the dance, the disapproval of the mother, and the momentary fear of the boy, which mingles with enthusiasm for the waltz itself.

Analysis

As Fong (1990) points out, the poem holds "fear and joy in tension" as the action contains a "mixture of tenderness and brutality" (p. 79). Yet, by placing too much emphasis on "brutality," the reader risks missing the real meaning of the poem — love between a father and son. From the child's perspective, there is no real sense of brutality; rather, there is the simple articulation of facts: the father's keeping time on the boy's head feels like a beating, but of course it is not. It is just a measure of the distance between the size of the man and the size of the child. Tenderness and affection permeate the poem in both directions. The father feels tenderly towards the boy, and the boy — though somewhat frightened and in awe of his father in the moment — looks back on the episode as an adult poet with great fondness, humor, and delight.

It is an affectionate ode to Roethke's father, not an expression of resentment, as some readers might understandably but mistakenly believe. The problem with that interpretation is that it is not rooted in the actual tone of the poem. The tone is genuinely matched to the waltzing pace itself: the poet is still wrapped up in that moment, so fondly does he recall it, that he uses the pace of the dance to set the pace of the poem. The author is reliving the experience with zest and delight — which he surely would not do if he carried any lingering resentment.

Moreover, there is no evidence that the boy resents anything about the moment. The mother is depicted as frowning, but the clamor caused by the dance explains her negative reaction. Her frown is not an indication that she resents her husband or the dance specifically; it is a natural reaction to the annoyance of commotion disrupting her kitchen. The boy is simply receiving the father's attention in an accepting way — no matter the fact that he is considerably outsized by his dance partner.

Harfitt and Chu (2012) have noted that readers tend to fall into one of two camps: those who view the poem as an ode to a loving relationship, and those who view it as dark and potentially sinister, with tones of child endangerment running through it. The latter camp, however, may be projecting too much modern suspicion onto the subject and action of the poem. The contrast inherent in the poem helps frame the mismatched pairing of father and son for the drunken waltz. Janssen (1986) describes these contrasts well:

The formality of the waltz is first modified slightly by the informality of "papa" (rather than "father," for example) in the title. We are then plunged into a comic and tragic tension in the first stanza, where we are confronted with the grim vision of the helpless boy at the mercy of his father and at the same time we must absorb the rather hilarious image of a drunken man trying to step formally through the paces of the waltz, perhaps to imaginary music (p. 43).

By the end of the poem, the comic and tragic tension is resolved: a colloquial connotation is applied to "waltz" as the boy is waltzed off to bed by his father, which clearly situates the poem in an overall comic disposition. The comedic nature of the scene is what stands out, and this is what the poet purposefully emphasizes with genuine fondness for his father.

Conclusion

"My Papa's Waltz" is a poem about a father dancing with his boy. The dance is rather drunkenly performed — but it is lovingly performed. There is no hint of abuse or malevolence, only the realities of a father who vastly towers over the boy serving as his dance partner. The poem is ultimately comedic and serves as a representation of what it is like to be part of a family: there are elements of fear, elements of joy, elements of awe, and elements of disapproval. But running through all of it is the form of family life and the idea that every family is held together by the bond of love, which acts as the glue keeping the members in line with their final destination — peaceful rest.