Abuse is like rancid meat, it doesn’t matter how much its’ seasoned, the foul odor and putrid taste can’t be covered up or erased from memory once it’s swallowed.  In My Papa’s Waltz, by Theodore Roethke, the author attempts to season his childhood spent at the hands of an abusive father with the more palatable image and pace of a father teaching his son to waltz.  The repetitive meter and rhythm of the poem, coupled with a waltz metaphor, is meant to take the edge off a difficult topic; childhood abuse.  Regardless of the author’s attempt to make his tale  of abuse more palatable for the reader, his use of word connotation, rhyme, and imagery leave the reader with gut wrenching images that overpower the waltz.  

Roethke wrote the poem in iambic trimeter, which uses a stressed, unstressed meter three times per line.  The author selected the meter intentionally to mirror that of waltz music, which is written in 3/4 time and is recognized by listening for a three beat per measure rhythm pattern (Howden).  As a result of the use of iambic trimeter within  Papa’s Waltz, the reader is put into the rhythm of  Waltz music, which has a step timing count of 1,2,3; 1,2,3 (Howden).  The rhythm lulls the reader into a false feeling of comfort and ease that is shattered as the reader digs deeper into the text.

The author intentionally uses rhyme in this poem to call attention to certain words.  By using consonance, repetition of final consonant sounds, the author is leading the reader to linger on the last rhyming words.  Such as when he rhymes the words breath and death, wrist and missed, knuckle and buckle, and head and bed. He stresses these words by using rhyme and by placing them at the end of lines to make sure the story of a happy waltz doesn’t overshadow his intended story of abuse. Each set of words that he rhymed together can be linked to some form of abuse. When he rhymed the words breath and death the reader immediately jumps to the conclusion that the boy felt like death at times, probably after being beaten. The author goes even further with this when he says that his father’s breath is so strong that it could “make a small boy dizzy” (Roethke 90) implying that his father hasn’t had just a little alcohol, but a good bit. Clearly, the author is using rhyme to make sure that the reader doesn’t miss the story of abuse.

The next two words that Roethke rhymes are wrist and missed.  These two words don’t force the reader to come to an immediate impression like breath and death, but in the context of the poem the reader can see the abusive undertones. The lines read “The hand that held my wrist/At every step you missed” (Roethke 91).  The reader is drawn to the word wrist, because what father holds their child by their wrist and not by their hand? This shows that the father was never gentle with the boy and instead just lugged him around by his wrist without any positive emotions. The next part furthers the thought that the father was taking out his anger on the boy, because it says “At every step you missed” (Roethke 91) which implies that whenever the father messed up he would take out his anger on the boy.  The reader feels a strong sense of anger and loathing towards the father within this line, overpowering the positive images of the waltz. 

Immediately following the line in the poem that talks about the father holding his hand by his wrist is “Was battered on one knuckle” (Roethke 91), which is rhymed with a line that reads “My right ear scraped a buckle” (Roethke 91).   This is followed by “At every step you missed” (Roethke 91). So here we see physical evidence of the father’s abusive tendencies, because the easiest way to bruise your knuckles is to get in a fight. This also shows that the father’s problem stretch out past just his life at home. More than that though we can see a connection in the lines “At every step you missed/My right ear scraped a buckle.” (Roethke 91). This is easily the thing that stands out the most in the poem that brings out the abusive undertones, because it shows that whenever the father messed up in some way he would beat his child with a belt even though it was not the boys fault.

The last set of rhymed words is in the lines “you beat time on my head/Then waltzed me off to bed” (Roethke 91). In the first line the author uses the word beat to describe how he gets hit on the head instead of a gentler word like tap or pat to show the violent nature of his father. Then he is simply sent off to bed by his father without consoling.  The use of rhymed words throughout the poem serves to emphasize the abuse.

The author’s use of word connotation is a direct contradiction to the soothing tone the author sets by using iambic trimeter and the waltz metaphor.   For example, when the audience reads the word death, they immediately have strong feelings of sorrow associated with someone passing away. The words death, battered, beat, knuckles, scraped, and buckle; all evoke strong sensory images associated with being beaten or abused.  The repetitive use of such strong words leads the reader to believe that the abuse was frequent and occurred over a long period of time as opposed to being isolated to a single occurrence.  These strong words paint a picture of a difficult adolescence.

“We romped until the pans/ Slid from the kitchen shelf;” (Roethke 91) leads the reader to believe that the abuse took place in front of the mother and that perhaps the mother was abused as well.  The author choosing to use the word slid, as opposed to crashed or fell, implies that the abuse slowly escalated.  “My mother’s countenance/Could not unfrown itself” (Roethke 91) leads the reader to conclude that the mother was in a depressed state.  

The author’s use of imagery is powerful throughout.  For example, “The whisky on your breath” (Roethke 91) leads the reader to actually smell the sour breath of someone that has been drinking all day. The simile “I hung on like death” (Roethke 91) uses imagery to imply that the grip the boy has upon his father, goes well beyond the typical required of a small boy being whirled around the kitchen during a waltzing lesson. It implies that the boy was hanging on with fear for his life.  It implies that if his grip slips, he will be tossed to the ground and severely injured. The imagery is the feeling the reader gets in their hands when envisioning grasping someone so hard. The imagery that comes from the iambic trimeter evokes the reader into the 1-2-3 beat of waltz music. The reader can almost hear the rhythm of a dance song when reading the poem.  Unfortunately, the rhythm of the song isn’t enough to cover the abuse of a child by his father.  Perhaps the most powerful evidence that the author is attempting make the abuse, and the abuser, more palatable is the last line “Still clinging to your shirt” (Roethke 91).  The author leaves the reader with the knowledge that, regardless of the abuse, he still loves his father.  

In My Papa’s Waltz, Roethke uses repetitive meter and a waltz metaphor in an attempt to help his audience stomach reading about his childhood filled with abuse.  The rhythm and meter conveys a joyous feeling of happiness and celebration that usually accompanies a waltz.  Regardless of the authors attempt to soften the blow, his use of word connotation, simile, rhyme, and imagery paint such a clear picture of a childhood filled with abuse that the reader is left feeling gutted by the end of the poem.  The author’s attempts to soften a story of abuse are noted but fruitless, it’s impossible to ‘pretty up’ child abuse.
