Theodore Roethke in writing “My Papa’s Waltz” details a part of his childhood by describing the complex relationship between himself and his father. It was a relationship filled with many difficult times for Roethke, and that probably left Roethke confused about the relationship but, this was his father and Roethke did learn to accept this through his life. My Papa’s Waltz uses the combination of negative words and negative connotations with words that give the meaning of love to show that there was an abusive relationship between father and son in order to assert that despite all of that, the author still loves his father and will always love him.

When first reading “My Papa’s Waltz” one of the first things you notice was that it used a lot of negative words, or at least words with a negative connotation. Words like death, battered, scraped, and beat (90-91). This made the point that this was a negative poem, that it was about something that was not a happy subject and the author wants the reader to know that right from the start. But then the author will incorporate phrases that do not go along with negatively like, “But I hung on like death:” (90) meaning that despite the problems, the author continued to love his father. It’s like when you marry someone you say you’ll be together until death parts you both, so the author hung on like death, where only death will part them. This theme of love is continued again at the end of the poem when the author says, “Still clinging to your shirt,” (91). It paints the picture that even though the author faces all this abuse, he cannot pull away from his father, he still loves him. Even in the title you can see there is still love for the author’s father, “My Papa’s Waltz.” If the author hated his father for the abuse still, then he would not have referred to him as Papa. 

When you focus on the second stanza, it can have multiple meanings. Going along with the negative theme, the author’s father is abusive to the point that the kitchen pans are falling and it leaves the author’s mother in shock and horror and leaves her with a frown that she cannot take away because she’s scared and ashamed of her husband. However, it also means that the author’s father and the author played together, given that there is that sense of love in the poem, and they played until the pans fell and it made the author’s mother sad or angry that her kitchen was a mess, so she had a frown on her face. The word “romped” (91) leaves this effect. It means rough play, but that definition is a little vague. Is that rough play an exciting and fun activity for the author and his father or is an abusive, sad act that saddens everyone who sees it happening? The word in the context of the poem leaves a negative feeling so this stanza is describing a time where the abuse was so bad that it tore the kitchen apart. This again adds to the negative feeling the poem, and it details even further that this is not a happy poem.

From this word choice, the meaning of the poem is that the author is victim of an abusive relationship between him and his father. There are times where the author’s father will hurt the author and beat him when something bad happens. You can see that this hurt the author from the line, “You beat time on my head” (91), meaning that because of the abuse, the author was forced to grow up quick and therefore making his childhood a short and grim one. However, despite this the author still loves his father. This love may not have necessarily been present when this abuse was happening, since the poem is in past tense, but it is there now. Time may have healed some wounds for the author and opened his eyes to the fact that this was his father, and that you only get one in your life. 

In using the word waltz in the title of the poem, the author is trying to make this abusive situation less depressing. But he also does this because the poem is like a waltz. When you read the poem, you read it to the beat of a slow dance. The poem also has a pretty consistent rhyme scheme of ABAB throughout, which is still adhering to that slow dance theme of the poem. A waltz in particular is the same over and over, and to keep with that the author chose a rhyme scheme that is consistent over and over. This goes along with the love theme in the poem. The author would not still make this abusive relationship out to be a beautiful dance if the author did not love his father. It is also a powerful poem that tells an intense story and the waltz is also an intense dance that works perfectly with the poem. The poem is written like the author is telling a story, an elaborate and maybe even a somewhat vague story, but this story is not directed at any one person either. The author is sharing an occurrence in his life with whoever will take the time and read. 

This poem gives two good lesson to those who read it, and in turn two ways of looking at the piece. First that despite the mistakes some people make, that they still deserve love no matter what has happened. When the author was a child, he knew the abuse was a bad thing but once the moments of abuse were over, there were also moments of love and that was all the author knew in his life. He knew it wasn’t right, and he maybe hated his father for this confusing mixture of polar opposite behaviors, but the author still loved his father, and that was something that would not change. The second lesson the poem gives is that time can heal all wounds. In the poem, there is that definite sense of hatred from the negative words and anyone can see it. But the poem is written in the past tense and that is how the love shines through in the poem. Time has healed the pain of the author’s childhood and that has allowed him to feel love for his father again.
