

The poem “My Papa’s Waltz” is about a child’s relationships with its parents and what goes on in a daily routine. It uses many different symbols, and reoccurring words to try to give its message. The poem also uses a very specific format to add on to the theme, and makes it feel that their life is a dance. The poem explores themes such as abuse, and alcoholism. By looking at “My Papa’s Waltz” one can see that she uses unorthodox styles of describing the waltz, which is important because it gives the reader multiple perspectives of what is truly going on.

The poem’s title states that there is a waltz, but the waltz that it refers to is not the well-known dance, but the waltz of the daily routine of the father. It uses words commonly used in describing dancing and music such as beat, time, romped, and step. Though these words are used to describe an unpleasant thing such as “You beat time on my head” (Theodore). This line uses a waltz to describe a routinely activity of beating in a musical way. The wording in the poem can be interpreted as a double meaning that you have to think and look deeper to truly understand what is going on which is not easily figured out at first.


The poem is titled “My Papa’s Waltz”. The word papa is a term usually used to describe a father figure who they love, and care about. Although later in the poem he uses the word mother to describe his mom which is a more loving word choice compared to papa, so during the course of the poem papa goes from sounding loving to less formal. Also in other parts of the world papa is a more generic way of saying dad unlike in America. Waltz is a type of dance that takes two people. Although in the story it is not about a regular dance it is about a father and a son who is two people, but the father seems to be somewhat abusive. It describes what they do is a set routine like how the waltz is, but it is not a good one in that the dad comes home drunk, and beats the kid while the mother watches helpless.

The first clue that comes up and suggests that this is no ordinary waltz is the first line that states “The whiskey on your breath” (Theodore). When a character is portrayed in a short piece like a poem with alcohol it usually means that they are an alcoholic. This line completely changes the whole mood of the text. It adds to the effect that the dad is not a good father like the title might suggest and is someone the reader really loves, but a drunk and abusive figure. It goes from what you might of though was going to be a happy loving poem to a melancholy one.

The text also uses a lot of words to describe unpleasant things, but does so in a way that it does not completely tell you what is going on, it just gives you enough that you can assume the rest to get the full picture. “My right ear scraped a buckle” (Theodore) is one of the big one that strikes your attention because it doesn’t describe exactly why it scraped the buckle, but it tells you that the kid was hurt. It is assumed though that a forceful action by the father towards the kid was used like spanking or shoving causing it to get scraped. It also changes the tone of the poem a little bit more shifting to a definite sign of abusive relationship towards the child. This style of writing is more passive, and not straightforward describing to you exactly what is happening between the two and the reader is left to assume the rest.

The mother is also mentioned in this piece, but is only mentioned once and only for a short while. “My mother’s countenance could not unfrown itself” (Theodore), these two lines portray the mother as a helpless by stander who does not approve of what is happening but has no power to stop it from going on. She is only mentioned to show from a third party that what the father is doing is not right. No action by her is taking place which makes her just as guilty as the father because she just lets this go on in a home that is half hers and does not seek outside help to put an end to it.

The style of the piece is in a poem that is structured in a four line four stanza way. It has a ABAB rhyme scheme with a nice steady beat to it. The style of writing is a style that makes you have to think about the text to truly understand what is being described in the piece. It does not put everything out in the open for you to read, but makes it so you have to come up with your own interpretation of it. It gives you the feel of the whole events being one big waltz of one big dance.

The poem “My Papa’s Waltz” uses an unorthodox way of giving its message. The poem uses a comparison of the very systematic dance, the waltz, to describe the daily routine of his dad coming home intoxicating, and beating him. There is also a use of choice words that makes this dance seem like it could be abuse, and not a dance at all. It tries to almost make light of a bad situation and say that this is what me and my father do and does not just come straight out and complain about the father. It does this by saying everything that went on in a very indirect way, and made you have to read twice to really try to see and understand what is truly going on.
