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Comment 6 of 56, added on April 24th, 2005 at 4:09 PM.
Abuse and love can co-exist, especially to a child. I think this poem is about a sometimes-abusive father and the little boy who loves him. That's my opinion, anyway.
Susan Di Francesco from Canada
Comment 5 of 56, added on April 12th, 2005 at 6:49 PM.
this poem is so great but its obviously about his dad being absuive. if you look at his background his dad always drank and died right around when he wrote this poem and then he himself developed a drinming porblem and he got depressed form it and how he words this poem just makes me uneasy
naomi from United States
Comment 4 of 56, added on March 31st, 2005 at 8:58 PM.
i am definately no expert on poetry, i am only a freshman in college 1102 english but from what i got from the poem, it is a very loving poem. this is a poem about unconditional love, the love that a boy has for his father. i detected no abuse from the story at all, the part about "you beat time on my head" was nothing more than a father making a drum out of his little boys head in a playful way, i feel that this line is nothin negative. note i will agree that there are negative words used throughout the poem i believe fully that this is more of a poem about love over abuse or resentment or hate
Shane from United States
Comment 3 of 56, added on March 24th, 2005 at 11:22 PM.
This is a very good poem. It has been critisized about whether the tone was one of resentment or affection. I believe that the poem's tone is one of affection. It has a playful feel to it and the last two lines, "then waltzed me off to bed / still clinging to your shirt" (15-16), suggests that the small boy is commpassionate towards his father and doesn't want the dance to stop because of bed time. The rhymes also have a joyful sound to them. But I can see where the negative attitude towards the poem comes from. The words death, beat, scraped, and romped by themselves, don't give a very happy picture. But I believe the poem has a loving tone to it.
Helen from United States
Comment 2 of 56, added on March 23rd, 2005 at 12:07 AM.
I was always taught that this poem was about the boy getting abused by his father. If you read the poem, there are many negative words and I don't think that if it were a lovin poem, that he would have used those words choices. Beat, scraped, and clinging to death are not words that someone would use if they were talking lovingly. That's just my opinion though.
Katie
Comment 1 of 56, added on March 7th, 2005 at 8:04 PM.
This is a great poem. What it's about is debatable. Obviously it's about a boy and his father. But what is their relationship? Some see it as abusive. The father is drunk: "The whiskey on your breath" and he is beating his son: "You beat time on my head." These are just a couple examples to support the abusive relationship claim. However, I initially read it as much more loving. As boy, standing on his father's feet, dancing around the room with him. Crashing and banging in fun, with maybe a little fear because the father is so much bigger. There is whiskey on his breath yes, but does it have to be much to make a small boy dizzy? It is a very interesting poem indeed. A great one to use if you want to teach someone about poetry interpretation.
Tim from United States
This poem has been commented on more than 10 times. Click below to see the other comments.
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Abuse and love can co-exist, especially to a child. I think this poem is about a sometimes-abusive father and the little boy who loves him. That's my opinion, anyway.
Susan Di Francesco from Canada