
The who, what, when, where, and why.  These are what make up the setting of a story. By looking at all of them, we can see that his poem is about his childhood memory of his father; this is important because this made a lasting impression of on Roethke.  This impression will stay with Roethke for the entirety of his life and become a source of influence latter on in life.

The who.  Roethke writes the poem in the perspective of a small boy.  The boy being the protagonist.  The father we can assume to be the antagonist, and we can infer that also a hardworking man whose hands are “caked hard by dirt” and “battered on one knuckle” (Roethke).  The mother is also present, but she is home to one line of the poem.  However, we also need to look at the author in this situation to further understand the meaning behind his poem.  Theodore Roethke was a first generation German immigrant.  His father and uncle died early on in his teenage years, which would stand as a big influence for Roethke’s literary work.

The what.  The poem’s plot involves the main character’s father being inherently drunk and dancing around the house with his son.  This dance, however, is subject to one or two drunken stupors.  The actually structure of the poem also plays a role in this whole “waltz”. Hence the name “My Papa’s Waltz”.  The poem follows a ABAB structure, which can be seen as following the patter of a waltz. 

The when.  If we look at the time period when this was written, we see that it was written during prohibition.  Now looking at the poem in relation to the prohibition, we can determine quite easily that the main character’s father is a drunk.  This can just as easily be gather but reading the poem, but maybe that is the point. Maybe, the author wants the father to be known as a drunk because that’s all he remembers him as.  This poem may not be about a waltz but instead about the memory of his father being obscenely drunk and trying to dance with him late at night.

The where.  With this being such a short poem there is not much in the ways of where the poem take place.  We do have the notion that the poem takes place in the family’s house, more specifically the kitchen and boy’s bedroom.  However, if we include information from the preamble from the Carolina Reader about Roethke and his father managing a large green house and the lines about the boy’s father’s hands being covered in dirt we can infer that this poem takes place at Roethke’s parents’ house.

The why.  The why is there it all comes together. Going line by line from the second stanza we see the author uses the word “romped” as a verb for their dance through the kitchen, lend a playful quality to the waltz.  This would indicate the author saw this as a playful action, and may have thought his mother’s look of disapproval was towards the duo knocking pans off the shelf.  However, it is more likely the mother’s discontent was directed at the father’s alcohol induced state. This could also indicate the author’s parents were in a broken marriage on the due to several potential factors but undoubtable related to the father’s drinking habits. This is further solidified when the “mother’s countenance Could not unfrown itself” (Roethke).  Moving on down the poem see what could be a reference to the author’s father dying early on in the author’s life “At every step you missed” (Roethke), leaving him to take care of the family and taking on huge responsibility early on in life “My right ear scraped a buckle” (Roethke).  Finally, moving down to the last two lines we really see a reference to the authors resentment to his father dying early.  The author unable to change the course of his father’s actions is “waltzed off to bed” (Roethke).  With his father gone, Roethke is left “still clinging” to his father shirt and now responsible for all his father left behind.

 In closing, we see that Roethke’s poem is one of resentment for his father’s early death shrouded by a memory of joy for the time he had with him. 
