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Comment 26 of 56, added on September 26th, 2005 at 6:09 PM.
Alissa, the poem wasn't DUMB, it was just not the kind of poetry we prefer. Although, making us spend a week analyzing it certainly doesn't make me like it any more. I think the father IS abusive, but that the boy loves him anyway, and the father isn't abusing him during the waltz as you seem to be thinking, but that the father has abused him in past, and the boy is happy he is not being abused at the present time. He loves his father, though the father treats him poorly, and he (the son) is glad to be spending time with his father, regardless of how he came by it (in this case, the father becoming drunk). Thus, he "holds on like death" and "cling[s] to [the] shirt." Haha, you used a "on one hand" and an "on the other hand," like she told us to. Now THERE'S something that deserves to be called dumb!
Desirae from United States
Comment 25 of 56, added on September 26th, 2005 at 1:53 PM.
Personally, I believe that this poem is about a druken father who is playing around with his son. We have discussed this poem in Language Arts class recently, and made some observations and inferences about the poem. According to that data, I don't see the father as abusive, but rather, just playfully drunk. On one hand, I found the choice of descriptive words and phrases very interesting. On the other hand, I thought the poem was DUMB!
Alissa from United States
Comment 24 of 56, added on September 15th, 2005 at 8:57 PM.
I agree that the poem might be confusing to some readers. Especially due to the choice of words like 'death', 'could not unfrown', '... ear scraped a buckle'. But considering the fact that Roethke loved his father a lot and even went into a state of depression after his father's death and most of him poems reflected on his life, brings me to the conclusion that there is no intended violance in this poem.
rona from Malaysia
Comment 23 of 56, added on September 11th, 2005 at 11:42 AM.
I believe that this poem My Papa's Waltz By: Theodore Roethke is not a sad story of a father that is abusive. Its a mere story of a dad who has had a few to many drinks and he and the little boy are just having a good time, playing around or rough housing. As for "We romped until the pan slid from the kitchen shelf" I believe that the boy and his father had just gotten out of hand and knocked over a few dishes which made the mother mad because possibly she had just cleaned the kitchen and now they were dirting it up again, which explains " My mother's countance could not unfrown itself." These are my views having to write on this topic for a thesis.
Sara Bunemann
(9th Grader at North Carolina School of the Arts)
Sara Bunemann from United States
Comment 22 of 56, added on September 10th, 2005 at 9:25 AM.
This poem is a recollection of this young man's childhood. His parents owned a greenhouse- hence the dirt the father's hand. This poem was written while Mr. Roethke was in the hospital for a severe depression. I think that it is just a happy memory of his father who died if cancer when his son was 15.
So this poem isn't literal- it is his life, in a simple poem.
Liz from United States
Comment 21 of 56, added on August 28th, 2005 at 8:44 PM.
I see a small boy who worshiped his father dispite his failings.Yes! his father drank,and was a bit rough. But he cared enough to at least see his son to bed,inspite of his condition.I get the impression that the boy did not like the whiskey breath,among other things, but in the end he clings to his father's shirt. This seems to indicate that at some point his father lifted him up in his arms. Then the boy though reluctant at first finaly gives in to his father's embrace as he is waltzed off to bed.
Ruth from United States
Comment 20 of 56, added on August 7th, 2005 at 1:40 AM.
This poem is NOT about abuse or alcoholism. Keep in mind that this poem was written in the year 1948. Looking back to the movies of the 40s and 50s as well as the sitcoms from the 50s such as "I Love Lucy" you will see a pattern of alcohol consumption being associated with comedy - not abuse. I think that the first line of this poem being read in modern times causes the tone of the poem to be taken out of context (especially in America) because our generation has been taught that drug and alcohol use only leads to misery. However, that was not the message of this poet who died in 1963.
Roethke's father owned a greenhouse. Although he was a stern man, Roethke and his father are reported to have had a good relationship. Roethke's father died when he was only 14 years old, and I think that this poem was written based upon a childhood memory of his father returning home from working in the greenhouse, after he had relaxed and had a drink or two which relaxed him. The fact that the father's hand was "battered on one knuckle" indicates that he was a hard working man, and "with a palm caked hard by dirt" reflects his father's work with the plants in the greenhouse.
There have been analyses of the rough drafts of Roethke's poem which show that the poet deliberately chose ambiguous words so that the feelings they would instill in the reader would not be precise. Unfortunately, this seems to make modern day readers believe there is abuse occurring in this poem. However, there is no evidence that the father is purposely mistreating the son, there is only evidence of rough play - but happy rough play. The father dances sloppily and misses some steps which inadvertently causes a belt buckle to scrape the child's ear, but the father didn't intentionally hurt him. The ambiguity that I believe this poet was striving for was to show that this enjoyable interaction between father and son ranges from delight to a small amount of fear - the type of fear that we may feel on a fast rollercoaster ride (the good kind that provides a little adrenalin rush).
When the father "beat time" on the boy's head Roethke deliberately chooses the word "beat" over the words "kept time" (per his rough drafts) most likely to increase the intensity of the interaction, but should not be mistaken to mean that the boy was beaten by his father or was hurt in any way.
What about the mother? Would a mother merely maintain a frown if the father was abusing the son? Wouldn't there be tears in her eyes, a cry of protest, something besides a description indicating that her face "could not unfrown itself?" Mom merely wishes that the rough play would end because they are knocking over pans and it is the child's bedtime. What mother doesn't tell a father to stop winding the children up just before bedtime?
The son enjoys the father's rough play. So much so that when it comes to an end and the father waltzes him off to bed, the son clings to the father's shirt because he does not want the good time to end.
My advice is that the reader should minimize the effect that the whiskey in the first line has on their perceptions of this poem. Not every man who has a glass of whiskey should be labeled a drunk, an alcoholic, or abusive. The scent of alcohol on someone's breath doesn't even mean that they are drunk or under the influence of alcohol, it only means that they had a drink. There's no crime in that, is there?
Susan
Comment 19 of 56, added on June 24th, 2005 at 5:15 AM.
at first i was confused,when i read this poem in school,however in reading some of the comments that was posted before ,i was able to see through the poem more clearly ,and will like to help others who are getting dificulty with it.
in the first stanza of the poem,i analysed it to mean that the effect of the father's behaviour on the boy makes him skeptical in that if he stops dancing,the father might react badly and he wants to be bonded with his father. then in the second stanza,in the lines which state that 'my mother's countenance could not unfrown itself',this simply means that the mother isolates herself from the dancing excitement ,and was angry at the father but did not want to show it since he was drunk.
then in the penultimate stanza when the poet writes that at every step you missed your right ear scraped a buckle,it means that he was short compared to the father and that he got pain,but still enjoyed the dancing.i find this to be quite ironic.
lastly,you beat time on my head meant that this was the rhythm the father gave to the boy when they danced,and i believe it does not has any abusive connotations to it,as the time was beat on his head as he was relatively short compared to the father.the palm caked hard lastly means that,the father was a field labourer.
sati from Trinidad and Tobago, Republic
Comment 18 of 56, added on June 17th, 2005 at 2:32 PM.
“ My Papa’s Waltz” about ( I believe) abusive father. The tone of the poem is pretty strained. On the face of it, it seems that author talks about him and his father having a romp, as a game:he put this “ My mother’s countenance Could not unfrown itself.” But later is “ You beat time on my head…” It’s definitely about regular beating. “ With a palm caked hard by dirt”. I saw an anger in that poem that remained in this author. The poem ends with unfinished battle “Then waltzed me off to bed still clinging to your shirt.” ”. I was wondered, why author died being pretty young. So, I found that Theodore Roethke was a heavy drinker and died of a heard attack. It tells me he kept his anger for father for years. He calls it My Papa's waltz- it sound to me as a sarcastic title.
Lana from Ukraine
Comment 17 of 56, added on June 6th, 2005 at 12:51 AM.
Yeah. It's playful, because the kid is playing, but it's rough because the dad is drunk. The kid doesn't quite understand it, he jsut wants to play with his father, and they're doin some kind of funky rambunctious father-son dance thing, and the dad is drunk and the kid probably gets hurt a little but not too bad and the father isn't really hurting him too much intentionally so much as just being drunk and clumsy, which is why the mother is more unhappy than actually screaming, crying, etc. because her son is being beat, because he's not she's just dissappointed because her husband is drunk and being noisy and making a mess.
Daniel from Saint Kitts and Nevis
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Alissa, the poem wasn't DUMB, it was just not the kind of poetry we prefer. Although, making us spend a week analyzing it certainly doesn't make me like it any more. I think the father IS abusive, but that the boy loves him anyway, and the father isn't abusing him during the waltz as you seem to be thinking, but that the father has abused him in past, and the boy is happy he is not being abused at the present time. He loves his father, though the father treats him poorly, and he (the son) is glad to be spending time with his father, regardless of how he came by it (in this case, the father becoming drunk). Thus, he "holds on like death" and "cling[s] to [the] shirt." Haha, you used a "on one hand" and an "on the other hand," like she told us to. Now THERE'S something that deserves to be called dumb!
Desirae from United States