My Papa's Waltz

Introduction

There is much debate on whether “My Papa's Waltz,” written by Theodore Roethke in 1948, is a child screaming out in cries of abuse or a child remembering a moment with his father. The poem goes back and forth using both positive descriptive, words, “then waltz me off to bed,” and abusive descriptive words, “but I hung on like death” (Roethke, Pp.324-325). The speaker of this poem is the son as he is describing an evening playing with his father after a long day of work. There are several critics that take sides to this poem but one in particular took it to the extreme. Ciardi gives examples of how the line and word usage Roethke uses conveys to as abuse. In John Ciardi book, How does a Poem Mean published in 1956, takes the meaning of this poem to the severity by saying, Roethke wrote this out of terror but, Ciardi lacks to understand of Roethke's childhood, different uses and metaphors, Roethke's relationship with his father, Otto.

Critical Analysis

In his book How a Poem Means, John Ciardi illustrates Roethke's poem as terror and the boy in the poem is so fearful of his father and abuse he receives by him. He goes into more detail by taking specific scenes out of context and turning the words around to make them sound abusive. He house is shaking the mother is frowning the father's hand scarred by violence every misstep in the dance scrapes the father's belt buckle painfully across the boy's ear, and the boy's head is being pounded by the enormous hard palm. He takes a extraordinarily playful gesture as romp and describes it as the boy must cling like death until he is finally dumped into bed. Ciardi still continues on this terror theory but going into further detail about the poetic structure by stating that element the boy seems scared, because there is no change either in tone or attitude. Ciardi takes it to the extreme of this poem.

Ciardi forgot to remember that there is a light heartiness and a more affectionate side to this poem. He does not look at who Roethke was as a child or who what mental stability he was in when he wrote this poem. After reading several critics, and several different takes on both sides, its seems like Ciardi does not look at the whole picture but rather just jumps to a conclusion that the boy in this poem is getting frighteningly beaten by his father. It is essential to understand Roethke's life and interpret other critics' points of views; and then see if Ciardi assumption about the terror of the poem is correct.

Theodore Roethke had a normal childhood, with exception to his father dying, and then his adulthood would be filled with teachings and depression. His father and uncle (Otto and Charles) owned and operated a greenhouse. Otto was a strong, masculine man that was not afraid of physical labor; however, Roethke was thin, undersized and sickly for a boy ...