According to National Children’s Alliance, more than 700,000 children are abused in the U.S annually and an estimated 702,000 children were victims of abuse and neglect in 2014 (National Children’s Alliance, 1). Violence, abuse, and alcoholism are all problems that happen around the world daily, and it is a greater problem than most think. Abuse is a repetitive pattern of behaviors to maintain power and control over a person (The National Domestic violence hotline). This definition shows that abuse is not only physical, but it can be mental and emotional as well. Abuse is a repulsive behavior, despite the fact it has been going on for centuries all around the world, because it is unacceptable and the awful memories will scar children for life. The title of “My Papa’s Waltz” made me believe that this poem was going to be nice read as a son connects with his father, but I could not be more wrong.  Poems can be perceived differently by each reader, shown in Stuart Hall’s “Encoding/Decoding,” and there are a million meanings an author can try to get across. For me, I saw part of my past in this poem. I am not sure how this boy's life turned out, and the effect the abuse had on him, but I would not be surprised if it had made a huge impact on his upbringing. This upsets me because the author, Roethke, an aged man, is writing about a past problem that continues in society today.  In "My Papa's Waltz," Theodore Roethke uses diction to relate to multiple audiences, which helped me connect to my own personal childhood experiences with my father.

It can be argued though that “My Papa’s Waltz” is a poem about dark abusive relationship between a father and a son, but it also can be said that the poem is about a joyful childhood relationship between a father and son, because the poem can be read from two different perspectives. Roethke did a great job connecting the two different sides of the spectrum. It is clear that he had multiple target audiences. By looking at the diction of “My Papa’s Waltz” we can see that the words used in the poem can define a positive or a negative childhood memory, which most readers don't see. The majority either sees one or the other but not both. This is important because their can be multiple ideas or themes that you can draw from “My Papa’s Waltz” if the reader looks at the poem in a different perspective. A few words really stuck out to me in this poem, which included “whiskey”(1), “romped”(5), “beat”(13), and last but not least, “waltz”. The word “whisky”(1) stuck out to me because it shows that the alcohol abuse was causing the physical abuse. Hearing the word “romped”(5), it felt ironic because it could be referred to as “playing”. “beat”(13) showed the significance of the abuse and what was really going on. Lastly, the word “waltz” showed the complicity of the situation. 

With wanting to connect to multiple audiences, the author added certain lines and words that could make it seem like this poem was about a loving father and son. In Stuart Hall’s “Encoding/Decoding,” he shows the differences between dominant reading and oppositional reading. Oppositional reading is when the audience are in complete disagreement with the product’s message or setting(Hall). Reading the line “But I hung on like death: Such waltzing was not easy”(Lines 3 and 4) as happiness can be is as oppositional reading because that is not what the author’s goal was. This line can be shown as happiness because it shows a father leading the way and teaching his son how to do the dance. 

While reading this poem, I was trying to figure out why Roethke was referring to the constant abuse as “waltzing.” As we discussed in class, the abuse was a constant motion of the pain and suffering happening over and over again. As a person that saw abuse happen all the time, I am just not sure how one can easily refer to this complex concept as some simple dance. Abuse has many layers, and way too many meanings. It is something that is frankly uncontrollable, unlike the waltz. Two people need to work together to make this, what I would describe as a beautiful dance, flow together. I would argue that nobody has a desire to be abused. For such a beautiful dance, I do not know how the term, “waltz”, can reflect abuse nor can I fathom what the correct word would be to describe such abuse. “Then waltzed me off to your bed / Still clinging to your shirt”(Lines 15 and 16). This statement was a great last two lines of the poem because it showed how the abuse continued to happen, but the son really still loved his father. Whether the abuse is physical, emotional, or behavioral, it is hard to stop loving somebody who raised you, and took care of you. This definitely made me empathize even more with the young boy, because I understood exactly what he was going through.

Children should not have to deal with abuse from others because it will affect their upbringing and will stay in their memories forever. After reading and analyzing “My Papa’s Waltz,” the word “waltz” hit hard for me personally. I felt sympathy for the young boy represented in the poem because I have seen many people deal with an abusive father, but I felt empathy as well because my father was abusive. My father’s alcohol abuse in my life led to emotional and physical abuse, which has impacted me significantly. Seeing my mother cry, bruises on her arms, the screaming and yelling, and my father not talking to me because he was too drunk are the immediate thoughts that had popped up in my mind when I heard the words used in this poem, and it honestly scared me. As a child, I saw abuse all the time, which led me to connect with the boy in this poem. Roethke’s diction in this poem made it very easy to relate, with all audiences, whether or not the reader had a good upbringing with their father. Although, I do not agree with the world “waltz” being used to describe the abuse, I think it truly intensified the emotions the author was trying to get across. Overall, abuse needs to be limited in the future. It is very common and not healthy for anybody.
