My Papas Waltz by Theodore Roethke - Assignment Example

?Poem analysis paper: My Papa’s Waltz Theodore Roethke. The poem en d My Papa’s Waltz by Theodore Roethke is written in the first person and apparently represents an autobiographical account of an experience that he had as a young child. It is a relatively simple tale, told from the perspective of that child, who enjoys clinging to his father and dancing around the room. The surface meaning is just the description of that crazy dance, and the context in which it took place, but between the lines there are deeper meanings which reflect the complex relationship which the young boy must have had with each of his parents. The great charm of the poem lies in its ability to conjure up these deep meanings by implication, thus letting the reader figure out the emotional messages underneath. Theodore Roethke is a twentieth century American poet whose parents were German immigrants who had a 25-acre greenhouse in which the whole family worked (Hirsch xiv). Roethke’s father Otto was a hard working man, who built up his business by labouring in the soil and unfortunately he died young, while Theodore was still a teenager. This means that the poet never had the chance to develop a fully adult relationship with his father. Like most teenagers he no doubt experienced some friction in that relationship, which means that the memories of childhood are likely to be the most positive ones in terms of this father/son bond. The main persona in the poem is the narrator figure of the boy. The tone is intimate, and nostalgic, revealing the close relationship between father and son. The structure of the poem is a set of four regular stanzas, with an abab rhyme scheme as for example in stanza three the rhymes are wrist/missed and knuckle/buckle, and in stanza four the are head/bed and dirt/shirt. In the first two stanzas there is assonance rather than full rhyme, as for example dizzy/easy. The rhythm of the poem is also very regular, with a steady beat, except for line 6, in which the beat shifts from the second syllable to the very first syllable “slid”. This sudden switch underlines the disruptive event which is being narrated, namely the crashing of the pans on to the floor, caused by the careless whirling of the father and son in the kitchen. This is a skilful merging of content and form, to create a change in pace and abrupt jerk in the flow of the text. Each stanza represents a complete syntactic unit of one sentence, and there is a natural break between the first two lines and the second two lines in each stanza also. This gives the poem a very secure and steady frame, as if to underline the firm hold that the father has on the child, and the repetitive steps of the waltz going round again and again in the confined space of the kitchen. The image of the father and small son dancing is evocative of family life, since it is not often that men dance together in this way. It shows trust between the two. Most of the poem is literal description, except for one simile in the first stanza “But I hung on like death” (Roethke, line 3). This simile is very significant, in the light of the death of the poet’s father at a young age, and it is a powerful way of declaring the connection that existed between the son and father, recalled now by the adult poet as a way of overcoming the sad separation of death. A contrast between the mother and father figures is given in the depiction of the father as having whiskey on his breath and dirt on his hands, which suggests he is a hard-drinking working class man, while the mother is depicted as frowning at the disarray of the pans in the kitchen, suggesting that she plays a traditional housewife role, taking care of domestic duties. The father’s hand is “battered on one knuckle” (Roethke, line 10) which may suggest he has been in a fight, especially when considered along with the mention of whiskey in the first stanza. Between the lines, the reader may assume that the father can be violent and out of control, though he evidently loves his son, while the mother is the disciplined one who keeps the family in order. There may be a suggestion that she is depressed or frustrated by the situation, but this is only a hint, rather than an explicit statement. This is a poem that sticks in my mind because of the emotional tone of nostalgia that it carries. Most people look back on their childhood with a mixture of joy and sadness, especially if their parents are no longer alive, because they know that time has passed and things will never be as pure and simple as they were in childhood. Men in particular are culturally expected to be strong, and not to be sentimental, and I find this poem is very insightful on this point because it shows how the father expresses his love for his son in an unsentimental way. The waltz could be interpreted as a metaphor for life. After a few alcoholic drinks, the father can bond with his son in ways that might have been difficult when sober. One way that this poem affected me, was in making me realize how so much of my own relationship with my father is unspoken, and therefore unexpressed. It may be that I should be more aware in future of the value of talking about love within the family. Love is not mentioned anywhere in this poem, but it is perhaps the biggest theme that it expresses. The son loves the moment of closeness with his father. The mother frowns at the display of somewhat drunken crashing around the kitchen, but she does not intervene. She probably has mixed feelings about her husband’s behavior. Life is complicated for adults, but the point of parenthood is to create love for their children, before they grow up and take on the heavy burden of adult jobs and relationship. One thing that I would like to incorporate in my life is the ability that Roethke shows in looking at things from two perspectives at the same time. The poem successfully conveys the feelings of the child, and the feelings of the adult poet. Looking at the world in this way, from the perspective of present and past, and perhaps even future, all at the same time, allows me to pursue deeper reflection on what life means, and this is a valuable lesson for my future reading, but also for the way I view all of my relationships with other people. References Hirsch, Edward. “Introduction.” In : Theodore Roethke, Selected Poems. Washington: Library of America, 2005. Print. Roethke, Theodore. My Papa’s Waltz. Poem. 1942. [Accessed 12th July 2012]. Web. Read More