Poetry Part 3: "My Papa's Waltz"

 Poetry Part 3

 "My Papa's Waltz" by Theodore Roethke 

Roethke's poem is a powerful story that brings forward a variety of emotions and feelings both the speaker and the reader experience. First of all, the choice of words for the title is a powerful message by Roethke, letting his words be taken in many different ways. When I first read the title of this piece I took it in a way of the speaker partaking in some sort of proper dance with his father, but after reading the poem I took it a different way. The author could have used different terminology instead of papa and waltz, such as father or dance, etc, but Roethke's choice of words lets readers explore different meanings of both the tile and the poem as a whole. 

After reading the poem, I took it as the speaker trying to relay a moment from the past and convey youthfulness of the speaker. When we discussed in class there was another possibility that there isn't really any kind of abuse going on but rather a father and son roughhousing. There is the possibility of the father possibly being a bit rougher than normal due to being under the influence. The biggest difference readers are trying to figure out with this poem if it is discussing admiration or abuse.

Also brought up in class, we discussed the possibility of using such language throughout the piece as a way of the author trying to look back into his past with descriptive words but also include more childlike commentary to resemble the time in his life everything was happening. Although I cannot directly relate to abusive parents or people I have encountered with, I have dealt with parents who have had their arguments along with times that I wasn't sure what was going to happen to our family relationship. I could see myself, and in ways Theodore Roethke, conveying parent arguments in a more aggressive way, such as abuse, even though any kind of abuse might be happening. To try and explain it better, I could see a kid envisioning parent arguments with both their partners and their children as very scary and stressful.  Whenever a parent is upset at us, especially as a child, we have to be very careful what we say or do since that could further anger them. 

Scary experiences such as abuse or heated arguments can cause a child to imagine these scenarios in a variety of different ways, depending on how they process them. Parents heavily influence their children, as seen in the poem where the speaker tries to do everything right and not do anything wrong due to his papa's influence of perfection. I enjoyed analyzing the poem "My Papa's Waltz" because I kept making me think more and more about Roethke's purpose, techniques in his writing, along with why he presented this story in the way he did.

Powerful parts of the poem's word choice/description: 

- I hung on like death

- Such waltzing was not easy

- We romped

- Battered

- Scraped a buckle

- Clinging to your shirt