Read our detailed notes on the poem “My Papa’s Waltz” by Theodore Huebner Roethke. Our notes cover My Papa’s Waltz summary, themes, characters, and literary analysis.
My Papa’s Waltz Summary
Stanza I (line 1-4):
The first stanza begins with the speaker recalling the time when he was a child. He recalls the time when his drunk father would dance with him. The narrator, addressing his father, says that his drunk father’s breath could make a little boy feel dizzy but he used to cling to him out of fear. He says that the dance with his drunk father was not really easy.
Stanza II (line 5-8):
The second stanza begins with the narrator saying that he and his father waltzed roughly in the kitchen. The narrator further says that the pans used to slide off from the kitchen shelf while they waltzed roughly and violently. The narrator’s mother was angry while watching both of them dancing in the kitchen.
Stanza III (line 9-12):
The narrator says that his father’s hand, which he was holding his wrist with while waltzing, was injured. He says that he could see his father’s injured knuckles. He further says that every time his drunk father missed a step in the waltz, his head would scrap against his father’s belt buckle.
Stanza IV (line 13-16):
The fourth stanza progresses the action further, saying that his father would beat the rhythm of the waltz on his head, with his hard and dirty palm. He says that his father danced him off to his bed while he would cling to his shirt.
Background of the Poem
The poem “My Papa’s Waltz” is written by an American Poet Theodore Huebner Roethke (1908-1963). The poem was first published in Hearst magazine in 1942 and after that, it was published in Theodore Huebner Roethke’s collection “The Lost Son and other poems” in 1948.
The poem describes a happy family scene where a father and son dance playfully. But the narrator provides some hints which show that the family that seems happy is not quite happy.
Historical Context of the Poem
The poem was written in the 1940s and was published for the first time in 1942. Those were the years of World War II and a time of great transformation for American society. But the poet does not write about that time, instead, he reflects on his past and writes about his childhood years. He reflects on his relationship with his father when he was a child.
The poem can be considered autobiographical that contains elements from the poet’s own life. Theodore Roethke spent his childhood in Saginaw, Michigan where his father and grandfather worked in a greenhouse. His father and grandfather were German immigrants. The poem reflects the hardships his father faced just like he refers to his father’s hand in the poem; “caked hard by dirt“. It reflects the hard work that his father used to do.
Literary Context of the Poem
Theodore Huebner Roethke began his poetry while he was in high school. He is considered one of the greatest American poets during the twentieth century. Along with his contemporaries such as Sylvia Plath, Robert Lowell, and John Berryman, he is considered as the pioneer of confessional poetry. His poetry often takes a traditional form that describes universal themes and conflicts but sometimes his works are autobiographical.
“My Papa’s Waltz” is one of the best examples of Theodore Roethke’s confessional poetry. It is written in a traditional form, The Ballad. But he has modified its meter and rhyme scheme. The poem consists of autobiographical elements because Theodore Roethke is said to have had a complex relationship with his father.
Themes
Father and Son
The poem is a complex and ambiguous one. It seems to talk about a charming and playful dance between a father and a son, still the speaker hints that there is some kind of tension and unease between them. The waltz is not only a literal dance between them but is a metaphor used for the uneasiness in the relationship between them.
Though most of the words of the poem suggest the waltz to be a playful dance between the father and the son, some words hint that the son is scared of his father.
The speaker is closely attached to his father and clings to him “like death”. His father keeps stumbling and misses steps while waltzing, still the son clings to him. This shows his devotion towards his father which is damaging for him since he keeps clinging but his father misses a step, it scrapes his ear. They both cannot match their steps and cannot quite connect which shows a kind of tension in their relationship.
The speaker also describes the roughness of his father’s waltz when he knocks off pans from the kitchen shelf. The narrator also refers to his father’s injured knuckle which shows that he has been involved in some violent activity.
The narrator also says that his father “beats time” on his head which has two meanings;
The father either beats the rhythm of the waltz on his head or it can refer to some violence against his son.
Masculinity
The poem also reflects traditional masculinity where the father is the head of the family. While the mother is a silent figure who only stands off to the side and frowns when the pans slide off the kitchen shelf. The strong and rough hands of the father not only shows the hard labor he does but the difficulty he faces while expressing his affection towards his son in a softer way.
Love
One of the main ideas of the poem is the unconditional love of a son for his father. The son loves his father so much that despite all his roughness while waltzing, the son keeps clinging to him. The son loves his father despite his roughness but also fears him. Waltzing with his father is not easy for him but he tries to match steps with him.
He fears being separated from him. Though it feels like “death” to him he clings to his father during the dance and when the father takes him to bed.
Power and Authority
The father of the narrator is a symbol of power and authority in the house. It is the father who starts the dance and keeps the narrator following him. The narrator though cannot match steps with his father and tries to be in pace with him. The mother also seems an inferior figure in the family who is angry at the disturbance made by falling off the pans off the kitchen shelf.
But she cannot stop the waltz. She just stands there and frowns. All this shows the dominance of the father over the family. It is the father who has the power and authority over all in the family.
Memory
The poem is a memory of an adult who recalls his childhood memory when his drunk father would come home and waltz with him. The poem is said in the past tense. The little boy who used to waltz with his father is now a grown-up adult. He reflects on his past and recalls how his father used to dance with him. His father used to waltz roughly, missing some of the steps as a result of which the boy’s ear would scrape against his belt buckle.
His father’s rough hands would beat the rhythm on his head to guide him on how the dance should go. They would waltz in such a violent way that the pans would knock down the kitchen shelf. His father would take him to his bed as he says in the final lines of the poem.
Order Vs Disorder
The drunk father of the narrator begins dancing with his son. He dances in such a rough and violent manner that the utensils on the kitchen shelf fall off to the floor. It shows that the father is the reason for the disorder in the house. He does all this on a daily basis, which in itself is a form of order. Which means that the father makes disorder in a regular and ordered manner.
Literary Analysis
The poem “My Papa’s Waltz” is written in the form of a loose ballad that contains four quatrains (stanzas having four lines each) that make a total of sixteen lines in the poem.
The poem is a monologue that Roethke called his “best dramatic lyric”, in which the speaker looks towards the years of his childhood. It is a direct address of a son to his father.
The poem is ambiguous and does not give any clear idea about the relationship between the father and the son. It can be interpreted as a beautiful memory of the narrator from his childhood while it can also be taken as a confession of child abuse. It is actually a mix of both because we are not explicitly told about it.
Stanza I (line 1-4)
The poem begins with the speaker conveying the fact of his father’s drinking. He says that the amount of drink his father has consumed is enough to make a little boy feel dizzy. It shows that the father has consumed a substantial amount of alcohol. These lines also show the intimacy between the father and the son.
The son keeps clinging to his father because he fears to let go though he feels dizzy and anxious. The waltz is actually a metaphor here to show the relationship between the father and the son. “But I hung on like death” shows that the son keeps his grip tight because he fears the consequences of letting go. He fears being separated from his father.
The fourth line gives us a clue about the action taking place in the poem; a waltz!
A waltz is a type of dance that is easily and effortlessly done but the narrator here paradoxically says that since he was a little boy, the waltzing with his drunk father was not easy. He could not match steps with his father. This could also be used metaphorically, for the relationship between the father and the son.
Stanza II (line 5-8)
Here the dance becomes even odder since waltz is an easy and effortless type of dance, both of them do it playfully and energetically in a vigorous way. They do it in such an unruly manner that the utensils fall off from the kitchen shelf.
The mother is introduced into the scene as an aloof figure who disapproves of the waltz of the father and the son. She is displeased by the action and frowns but does not try to stop or intervene in the action. Despite his intimacy with his father, the speaker refers to his mother in an impersonal way and little is said about her in the poem.
Stanza III (line 9-12)
The closeness between the father and the son seems great here. The father holds his son’s wrist while dancing and his actions have consequences that affect his son. When the father misses a step in the waltz, it makes his son’s ear scrap against his belt’s buckle.
The narrator refers to two injuries in this stanza. One is on the knuckle of the father’s hand that holds his wrist. The injury seems to be received while doing labor or as a result of some violent activity. The other injury is on the boy’s ear, that scraps against his father’s belt buckle, during the dance. This actually means that the narrator accuses his father of his failures. He speaks about his father’s actions which would in turn affect him.
Stanza IV (line 13-16)
The dirt-caked hand of the father beat a rhythm on the boy’s head in an odd manner. The tapping on the boy’s head meant to convey to the boy how the dance should go and not how it was going. It means the father and son’s relationship needed to be smooth rather than stumbling and clumsy.
The final lines in the poem give a final touch to the dance. The dance moved from the kitchen to the bedroom of the little boy. The father takes him to his bedroom but he keeps clinging to his father which shows that he does not want to let go of his father. He fears the separation between him and his father which shows his deep love for his father.
Significance of the Title
We can have an idea about the poem from its title, even before reading it. The title of the poem “My Papa’s Waltz” is a light one. It suggests that the poem is having a light and easy tone. Waltz is an easy type of dance and Papa is used to show an extreme closeness between the father and the son. Though the title conveys lightness and easiness, paradoxically the poem is about the dark memory of the narrator’s childhood that is child abuse.
The title is actually a metaphor for the relationship between the father and the son that dances between love and resentment.
Type
The poem is a modified ballad. The word modified here means that traditional ballads have abcb rhyme scheme while the poem has abab rhyme scheme. And it is written in a modified iambic trimeter.
Point of view of the Poem
The poem is narrated from the first-person narrative. It is the son in the poem who is the speaker of the poem. The poem is narrated in the past tense which shows that it is a memory from the narrator’s childhood. His drunk father comes home and walts with his son roughly and violently. The mother of the narrator is angry at them when the pans are knocked down the kitchen shelf. But she is helpless and does not interrupt them.
The speaker possibly reflects on the most difficult memory of his past.
Tone of the Poem
The poem can be interpreted as playful or resentful. The tone can be considered playful in the sense that the narrator loves his father so much and clings to him, he loves to be with his father. Though his father waltzes in a rough manner, the narrator tries to keep pace with him. He does not want to let go of his father. Despite the roughness, he loves his father.
The tone can be taken as resentful and mournful, a sense that the father is drunk. He waltzes in a rough and violent manner. Every time he misses a step in the dance, he scratches his son’s ear against his belt buckle. Since the waltz is a metaphor for the relationship between the father and the son, the missed steps are actually the mistakes that the father has committed in their relationship. That is why the son accuses his father of his failures.
Setting of the Poem
The setting of the poem is the family kitchen of the narrator when he was a child. He and his father waltz in the kitchen and then his father takes him to his bed.
Since the poem is about the narrator’s childhood, a very detailed location is not provided. The narrator is a child and he focuses only on things that are immediate and are in front of him such as his mother’s frowning face, his father’s bruised knuckles, and his hard, dirty palms.
Form
The poem is in the form of a loose ballad. It has four quatrains (stanzas that have four lines) which mean the poem consists of a total of sixteen lines where the first line rhymes with the third line of the poem and the second line rhymes with the fourth line.
The poem’s form is very significant in understanding My Papa’s Waltz. Since ballads are closely connected with music and many folk songs are written in ballad meter, the poem feels very musical to readers. Reading the poem seems like reading the lyrics of a song.
This form of the poem is significant and intentional in understanding the poem. It mirrors the dance of the father and the son. Even when the rhythm goes out of step, it reflects the missed steps of the father while waltzing. It seems as if the poem is actually a ‘waltz’.
Meter
The poem My Papa’s Waltz is written in iambic trimeter. Iambic trimeter has a stressed-unstressed pattern with three feet per line. For example:
The whis | key on | your breath (line 1)
The use of the iambic trimeter is significant because its rhythm is somewhat like that of the waltz. A waltz is a type of dance and its rhythm is traditionally ¾ in time so each measure of the music has three beats. Iambic trimeter, in the same way, has three stressed syllables per line.
The narrator, instead of just describing the waltz with his father, uses this meter to give a real feel to the poem. Because reading the poem feels like listening to or dancing the waltz. It also helps readers feel the tension between the father and the son.
The odd lines of the poem are in perfect iambic trimeter while the even lines sometimes have a feminine ending which means they have an extra unstressed syllable at the end, such as:
Could make | a small | boy dizzy (line 2)
This extra syllable at the end throws off the rhythm of the poem just like the narrator’s father who is drunk and cannot manage each step so often misses it. By doing so, he hurts his son who’s ear scrapes against the belt buckle of his father.
The poem’s iambic meter is disrupted at several places where the poem follows a very uneven pattern such as:
With a | palm caked | hard | by dirt (line 15)
Only the last two syllables are in iambic meter. Such an irregular form of the iambic meter is called ballad meter because ballads often have irregularities in their meters. This irregularity gives the poem an informal and conversational touch which best suits the father’s missed steps.
The poem has not a consistent perfect iambic trimeter, it alternates between the perfect iambic trimeter and the lines having feminine endings. This alternation of the rhythms mirrors the waltz of the drunk father who misses the steps while dancing.
Symbols
Waltz
The waltz of the father and the son is a symbol of the relationship between them. The dance does not only show their literal dance but it also reflects the dynamics in their relationship. The relationship between them is not clear but ambiguous. Though the son loves his father unconditionally, there is a continuous tension between them.
The waltz represents their relationship is also unclear and unsmooth. The father misses some steps which cause the son’s ear to scrap against his belt buckle. It shows that the father’s actions affect his son. Though it seems charming to imagine a father and his son waltzing, there is a continuous tension between them.
Pans
Pans are the symbol of family togetherness. They are the domestic objects used for cooking and feeding the family. They represent a bonding between the family when family members come together for meals. Here is an irony when the father and the son while dancing, knock down the pans off the kitchen shelf which shows a disruption of the symbol of the family’s unity and togetherness, though while dancing playfully.
Imagery
It is the use of such descriptive language that appeals to the senses of a reader. For example:
We romped until the pans (line 5)
Slid from the kitchen shelf; (line 6)
Readers can clearly imagine the father and the son romping and dancing roughly in the kitchen. Their rough dance leads them to knock off the utensils from the kitchen shelf, clattering down on the floor.
Literary Devices
Alliteration
It is the repetition of the same consonant sound in the initial syllable of the neighboring words in the same line. For example:
The hand that held my wrist (line 9)
The consonant sound h is repeated at the beginning of words in the above line.
Such waltzing was not easy. (line 4)
The consonant sound w is repeated at the beginning of neighboring words in the above line.
Consonance
It is the repetition of the same consonant sound within any syllable of the neighboring words in the same line. For example:
Was battered on one knuckle; (line 10)
The above line from the poem repeats the same sound n in the adjacent words.
Could not unfrown itself. (line 8)
The consonant sound f is repeated in the adjacent words.
With a palm caked hard by dirt (line 14)
The above line has the repetition of the consonant sound d in adjacent words.
Assonance
It is the repetition of the same vowel sound within the adjacent words in the same line. For example:
Still clinging to your shirt. (line 16)
The vowel sound i is repeated within the neighboring words in the above line.
Such waltzing was not easy. (line 4)
The long vowel sound a is repeated in the neighboring words.
Metaphor
The poem “My Papa’s Waltz” is an extended metaphor itself. The poem is a metaphor that refers to the relationship between the father and the son. The waltz of the father and the son not only literally refers to the dance but also refers to the tension in their complex relationship.
Simile
It is a direct comparison between two unlike things using “like” or “as”.
But I hung on like death: (line 3)
Here the death shows the unconditional love of the son for his father. For him waltzing with his father is not easy but he keeps clinging to him. He fears to let go of his father as it seems to him like death.
End-stopped Lines
It refers to those lines in the poem that ended with a period.
In the poem almost every other line is end-stopped. This is done to organize the poem and to separate stanzas from each other.
Each of the stanzas is divided into two halves, each of which is a complete sentence.
For example:
We romped until the pans (line 5)
Slid from the kitchen shelf; (line 6)
My mother’s countenance (line 7)
Could not unfrown itself. (line 8)
Enjambment
It is the continuation of a line beyond the line break such as:
We romped until the pans (line 5)
Slid from the kitchen shelf; (line 6)
Above are the lines from the second stanza of the poem. The sense of the first line is continued with the next one.
Unlike every third line in each stanza that is enjambed, the third line in the first stanza is not continuous with the fourth;
But I hung on like death; (line 3)
Such waltzing was not easy. (line 4)
Except for the above lines, the poet has used enjambment in all the lines of the poem. The speaker breaks the pattern of enjambment here to describe that he hangs tightly to his father. This line is a confession of the son’s love for his father. He remains attached to his father despite the roughness and ambiguity of the waltz. He emphasizes his feelings for his father. The line is end-stopped to make it final, just like death. It also shows the narrator’s commitment to his father.
Rhyme Scheme
The rhyme scheme of the poem is abab where the first line rhymes with the third and the second line rhymes with the fourth.
End Rhymes
The poem uses end rhymes in order to add melody to the poem. Such as:
breath (line 1)
death (line 3)
shelf (line 6)
Itself (line 8)
wrist (line 9)
missed (line 11)
knuckle (line 10)
buckle (line 12)
head (line 13)
bed (line 15)
dirt (line 14)
shirt (line 16)
Slant Rhymes
The poem also uses slant rhymes such as:
dizzy (line 2)
easy (line 4)
pans (line 5)
countenance (line 7)
The oddness in the rhymes of the poem reflects the tension between the father and the son. The father is drunk, he often misses a step and loses rhythm. The rhyme scheme works in the same way. It reflects the violence and tension that exists between the father and the son.
