
Rocky Marciano once said, “Why waltz with a guy for ten rounds when you can knock him out in one?”.  This professional boxer has been in a lot of matches over his lifetime, and out of all of his experience, this one quote is what comes out of him in the end. We tend to watch boxing matches or even school fights and ask ourselves, “Why doesn’t he just hit the guy already?”, but in reality, we know if we were up against that guy, we wouldn't be throwing a punch either. It’s normal to be afraid and not want to cause any more trouble than there is. In “My Papa’s Waltz”, we see this fear in the speaker of the poem. The reader follows the story of a boy who seems to be the subject of constant abuse from his father. The boy appears scared to be a punching bag for his dad, but the boy never stands up to his father, and neither does his mother.   In this paper, I will explain why the waltz the speaker describes symbolizes both dominance and an uninterrupted pattern of abuse, as it separates our characters into roles that our speaker doesn't know how to get out of.

A waltz is a classic ball room dance where there is a lead and a follow, one dominant and one submissive role. During the dance, there is never a part where the follow is able to become lead. We see a more figurative example of this in Roethke’s poem. Here it says: “But I hung on like death: Such waltzing was not easy.” (Roethke 4) The boy holds onto his father like a follow would hang on to their lead. Letting the lead move the both of them and deciding where to go. The father is the one controlling the family, with what seems to be his fists more than anything else. Neither the boy nor the mother step in and try to take over the situation. The mother just frowns at their unfortunate life and the boy clings to his fathers shirt in hopes that the abuse will go away soon. The reader is never told that the boy ever stood up to his father, so it is safe to assume he never did. 

When watching a waltz, one would find that the dance consists of circular motions. The couple turning and turning until the song ends. The dance would be never ending if the song wasn’t there to stop them. In this poem, we can see that there is a never ending cycle of abuse the boy must endure. The author writes: “We romped until the pans Slid from the kitchen shelf;” (Roethke 5) The father did not stop hurting his son until the father started making a mess in the house. Much like when the song ends in a waltz is when the circular motion of the dance comes to an end. When the father stops, he takes the boy to bed and the boy goes to sleep expecting a repeat tomorrow of what happened today.

Lastly, the waltz is in a closed dance position. This means that the dancers never break apart or introduce a new dancer into one of the positions. This idea mostly relates to the mothers lack of  involvement of the abuse her husband subjects her son to. Even though it is clear in this poem that she is not happy about what is happening to her son, she is either too scared or discouraged to intervene. Maybe the abuse would be turned on her if she tried to step in. It is also a possibility that her son would be beaten even more if she made her husband upset. The mother may think that she is making it easier on her boy if that is the case. She lets her husband and son “waltz” together and just watches as if it were a type of disturbing performance. The poem also has a beat to it as we read it, just like how a waltz does. A waltz is in 3/4 time and even though the poem itself doesn’t have that exact rhythm, it still has one like like most dances do. This is because most all poems have a beat or rhythm to them, so it could be why the author chose to write “My Papas Waltz” as a poem instead of another form. It adds another element to the waltz comparison we can see throughout the story.

After reading this poem, it is no doubt that the writers use of the word “waltz” wasn’t any accident. Some may argue that the waltz the writer describes is his dads drunken stupor or it somehow relates to a more positive memory, but when reading this poem more closely, we can see that those interpretations aren't as strong. A waltz consists of  a closed dance position, a set lead and follow, and a series of endless circles. The boy is stuck clinging to his fathers shirt, with no chance of someone intervening, himself being able to take charge, or for the cycle of abuse to end. It is strange for a writer to take the idea of a beautiful dance and use it to describe an awful period of time in his life. Yet with further analysis of this text, it becomes clear that this ballroom dance is a perfect metaphor for the story in Roethke’s “My Papas Waltz”.
