Analysis of My Papa
Relationsips with Fathers The narrator of My Papa’s Waltz Theodore Roethke discusses a very heartbreaking and distressful situation when looking back at his childhood remembering a scene (perhaps one frequently enacted) where he and his drunken father waltz wildly through the house. An interpretation of “My Papa’s Waltz” takes into account the complexity of what the speaker feels that are bought about by the father. A dance is supposed to bring two people closer but here it has a darker side to it that makes one realize the powerfully unsettling emotion under the surface of the poem. Theodore Roethke manipulates our emotional response to the poem through a number of literary conventions, some of which play on the conventions of a waltz. The speaker sets a picture by establishing frightening images followed by some comforting ones. The speaker begins a sort of perturbing image “The whiskey on your breath /could make a small boy dizzy”. By this line one can imagine the little boys plight of having to go along with this waltz. The second stanza begins with words “We romped until the pans/slid from the kitchen shelf”. Although delight in the romp are obvious those feelings are shadowe
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Some common words found in the essay are:
Theodore Roethke, Papas Waltz, Thank God, Relationsips Fathers, papas waltz, alcoholic fathers, father poem, theodore roethke,
Approximate Word count = 948
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)
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