Dad's Drunken Dance

"My Papa's Waltz" by Theodore Roethke

Roethke's poem displays a form of twisted intimacy between father and son. The son seems to be "a small boy" (Roethke, Rag and Bone Shop, 130) overtaken by his father's drunken waltz. I don't know whether or not to take this poem as a literal interpretation and how this small boy was being led around by his drunken father around the room doing the waltz with his father leading him into the bedroom to continue the terrible waltz. Otherwise the poem to me seems to be about how the boy perceives being molested by his father. The reader learns that the father tends to be a drunk, "The whiskey on your breath / Could make a small boy dizzy" and that he was violent, "The hand that held my wrist / Was battered on one knuckle" (Roethke, Rag and Bone Shop, 130). We also get the sense with the next line after this that for every time the father messes up, the son suffers the consequence: "At every step you missed / My right ear scraped a buckle" (Roethke, Rag and Bone Shop, 130).

Roethke uses the imagery of a dance to describe the beatings that a small boy, most likely the author receives at the hands of his drunken father. When I read the poem I pictured a greasy, balding man wearing a stained white T shirt tucked into denim pants thrashing a young boy around the kitchen while the mother watches helpless from the next room, unable to do anything lest she be beat herself.

Such waltzing was not easy

Right away we learn just what state the father is in. He is quite drunk. As he is beaten, the boy hangs on to his father, hoping to avoid wild swings. He hangs on like death. I'm not quite sure what this line means, but it does give a very dark and deadly tone to the readers. We know that to make a wrong move could spell death for the boy.

Could not unfrown itself

The fights were quite brutal and out of control. The rooms themselves were destroyed. We can see these are more one sided bar room brawls than normal father to son punishments. The mother is there, where the boy can see, but she is helpless.

My right ear scraped a buckle

The father was not completely accurate, he misses in many of his swings. This accounts for the battered knuckle. Perhaps he hit a chair or wall of something else. The buckle may have been a belt buckle, attached to the belt that was being used to lash the boy.

Still clinging to your shirt

I think that the shirt means that in the course of the beating the boy tore his fathers shirt, or the boy is now unconscious or unwilling to let go of the shirt.

 This poem is very chilling. It makes me very thankful that I have the parents that I do.

"My Papa's Waltz" by Roethke is a fascinating view of an abusive relationship between father and son. The first five words, "The whiskey on your breath" (Roethke, My Papa's Waltz, in Rag and Bone p. 130), sets the stage and provides background for the poem. This action of being thrust directly into the conflict of the poem has a great effect of internalizing the reader. The reader is compelled to join in the dangerous waltz between father and son and shares in the emotions of the speaker.

Another way Roethke draws the reader into the poem is though the use of rhyme and meter. This poem reads like a nursery rhyme and is an effective tool to keep the reader into the pace, to make the reader read the poem faster than they normally would. The nursery rhyme aspect makes us view the action from the eyes of the child. Although the message in the poem is deep and dark, the beat is upbeat and almost fun. This creates conflict between the content of the poem and the written words as their intents seem to vary. The effect is a dark tale of abuse told in a sing song fashion. How would this poem differ if there was no rhyme or meter? I think it would not evoke such a strong emotional response from the reader.

It is very interesting that Roethke uses the metaphor of a waltz for his conflict with his father. The waltz, I believe, is a slow, clumsy dance. Also, as with all dances, both dancers know the steps and the moves they must make. This metaphor is effective as it illustrates the conflict and monotony of the struggle. The final sentence, "Then waltzed me off to bed/Still clinging to your shirt." (Roethke, My Papa's Waltz, in Rag and Bone p. 130), shows the struggle and love shared between father and child. I know that many people think that abusive parents and children cannot love each other, but that is often not the case. It appears in this poem that both the child and his father know and understand their roles in the sick dance, but are compelled to dance anyway.

"My Papa’s Waltz" seems to be a poem from the point of view of a little boy who is trying to put a positive spin on his relationship with his father, but who cannot manage to hide the truth from the reader. The violent imagery pokes through without question in the whiskey breath of the father, the boy’s deathlike grip, the violence of pans sliding from their shelves, the frowning of the mother, the father’s battered hand, the boy’s scraped ear, and the father beating time. A reader cannot but help to connect these images to abusive treatment of the boy. These images could possibly be connected to a simple, playful relationship between the father and the boy, but for the repetition of controlling images from the father’s point of view. The father holding tightly, missing steps, beating time, and waltzing the boy. The boy seems to be the participant in a waltz which he did not instigate and does not desire, for as he says, "such waltzing was not easy."

Note - "At every step you missed

My right ear scraped a buckle."

The first line faults the father, while the second line argues and places blame on the son - "Your ear is in the way!!!!" In other words, NOT - a buckle scraped my right ear.