
In Theodore Roethke’s poem, “My Papa’s Waltz”, Roethke gives insight into the relationship between him and his father. The description the author uses make the meaning behind the poem controversial and hard to determine a good or bad relationship between him and his father. Throughout the poem, Roethke uses harsh imagery to describe his father which can give the impression that his father was physically abusive towards him, but if one looks deeper into the text, once can see that Roethke’s poem illustrates the love the narrator and his father have for each other. 

Roethke begins the poem by saying that “the whiskey on his father’s breath could make a small boy dizzy” (Roethke, 90) which gives the sense that his father was an alcoholic. Despite this flaw of his father, the love Roethke has for his father is not affected by this. He goes on to say “But I hung on like death: such waltzing was not easy” (Roethke, 90). The use of the metaphor “I hung on like death” gives one the impression that he was terrified. However, this image portrays that he was holding on so tightly not because he was terrified, but because the “waltzing” was difficult and he did not want to stumble or fall. This would be easily misinterpreted if one was skimming through the poem quickly without taking the time to analyze this quote and piece the poem together. 

Roethke then talks about how him and his father “romped until the pans slid from the kitchen shelf; my mother’s countenance could not unfrown itself” (Roethke, 91). For one to get a full understanding of this, one must know the definition of the word “romp”, which means to play energetically. That itself gives the image a lighter tone. In addition, the way he described his mother’s reaction is not a way in which a mother would react if her son were getting physically abused. If that was the case, she would have reacted in a more serious manner, rather than just having a frown on her face. The frown on her face was most likely due to the face that the father and her son were causing a ruckus in the kitchen. This part of the poem is when it becomes the clearest that the relationship between the author and his father was a loving relationship. 

 In the third stanza of the poem, he gives a description of his father that puts a negative image in the reader’s head; but once again, once the text is more deeply looked into, once can realize that this is a misconception. This negative image comes from the word “battered” that Roethke used to describe his father’s hand that held onto his wrist. This gives one the impression that he was indeed being physically abused by his father; however, above the poem, background information is given on the author’s father. This background information gives the reader the knowledge that Roethke’s father worked in a greenhouse. Therefore, one can conclude that the injuries on his hand were most likely related to his job. He then says that “his right ear scraped a buckle at every step my father missed” (Roethke, 91). Despite the instant negative image the reader gets from this, there is once again a more lighter tone behind it. One can infer that this was not intentional and that during him and his father waltzing together, his father’s buckle would occasionally rub against his ear due to dancing.

The author ends the poem by using the metaphor “you beat time on my head, with a palm caked hard by dirt” (Roethke, 91). Although this sounds like his father literally beat his head, the metaphor is instead used to explain that his father was letting him know that it was time for bed in despite the author not wanting to go to bed. The fact that his hands were caked with dirt shows no evidence of physical abuse, but supports the idea in the previous stanza that his hands were in this condition because of working in the greenhouse. Roethke then says, “he waltzed me off to bed, still clinging to his shirt” (Roethke, 91). When reading this, it seems as if the author was clinging on to his shirt in fear but that is not the cause. The author was clinging on to his father’s shirt while they “waltzed” to bed, because as the metaphor implied earlier in the stanza, he did not want to go bed. This shows that he and his father were having a good time together. This quote is the biggest give away, along with the stanza about his mother, that shows he loved his father, and loved spending time with him. 

The relationship between the father and Roethke that readers mistake as an abusive relationship is due to the imagery that is produced by Roethke’s descriptions. The word “waltz” in the title gives off an initial tone of happiness, which is supported throughout the whole poem, if correctly interpreted.  The relationship was seen as a positive one by myself, because of the metaphors he used and the ways in which he used them. It is important for one to see these hidden meanings as well because the imagery, metaphors, and descriptions that Roethke uses could be easily misunderstood or not seen if one were to quickly read through the poem. At the beginning of the poem, the true meaning can be hard to see, but as the poem goes on and the reader puts more thought into it, it is obvious that the author and his father had a loving relationship.
