How much love does there need to be to overpower an underlying sense of fear? In “My Papa's Waltz”, by Theodore Roethke, Roethke writes in a way that seems as if a man is reminiscing about his life growing up with his fear-inducing father, like a drunken night after work waltzing around the house, and no matter what happened there was a strong dependence and love on this man that could sometimes instill fear into the boy. Throughout the poem there is a long standing sense of fun and love but under that is a slight fear, can both love and fear can be present in the same relationship. Yes, there can be love and fear in a relationship.

growing up fearful of something that might happen is something that everyone goes through it is just worse for others. When the speaker was younger he was fearful of mistakes around his father because of his occasional violent outbursts, due to alcohol, “the hand that held my wrist was battered on one knuckle at every step you missed my right ear scraped a buckle” (Roethke 91) and “the whiskey on your breath could make a small boy dizzy;” (Roethke 90). When the author says that the hand holding my wrist was battered on one knuckle could be showing his father’s random violent outbursts. These outbursts could be the main reason the boy has a fear of his father. Also stated in the poem the word buckle, as the author suggests, means an actual beating. With that meaning it could also be said that, since the story is a representation of his life as one night, the narrator was beaten or disciplined due to his mistakes.  Beating because of mistakes is a harsh way to do things, but an alcoholic father doesn’t always have the best of judgement and alcohol can change their whole demeanor and the way they are perceived. This is why, during his time growing up, the man's relationship with his father had an underlying sense of fear.

The strongest bond is between a child and his family and love is the strongest force to keep that family together. In this poem Roethke wrote of the fearful relationship between him and his father, but the question was can both love and fear coexist in a relationship, the simple answer is yes based off of the writing of the poem, “but I hung on like death: such waltzing was not easy.” (Roethke 90). Life, everyone knows, is a roller coaster full of ups and downs and it is difficult to do alone. With the quote saying” I hung on like death: such waltzing was not easy” Roethke suggests that while growing up when the boy was going through hard times he could always depend on his father to be there for him and help him through the hard times and even when he's gotten older he can still depend on his  father; this argument can be seen in the quote “then waltzed me off to bed still clinging to your shirt” (Roethke 91). Meaning the child still clung to his father like his life depended on it because he knew the man would always be there and he felt safe.

Both fear and love can be present in a relationship  if fear does not overcome the feeling of love. In “My Papa’s Waltz” a boy loves his father unconditionally and in the end of all the struggle of fear over love the power of love is strong in the boy’s life and nothing can change the way a man feels about his father even after so many years of somewhat violent tendencies the father may have.

What was changed in this essay was a chunk of what you suggested in your grading rubric, such as creating a topic sentence for an idea left without one, and adding clarification to the quoate left hanging in the second to last paragraph.