Reading “My Papa’s Waltz” the reader might come to the obvious conclusion that the child depicted is a victim of child abuse. The word choice, diction, and overall body of the text depict a memory from the view of a young child, who thinks of the walk to bed as more of a waltz than being shuffled by his or her drunken father. When reading this text, questions arise of the situation surrounding this event. The writer provides very little insight into the future or past, but instead intrigues the reader by telling a sad story through the eyes of a young child. The poem also shows how this event provides no emotion, which is most likely how the child deals with his problems.

The fact that the father is drunk is evident in the first line of text “whiskey on your breath could make a small boy dizzy” (line 1-2) which shows that the father is incredibly inebriated to the point that his small child still has the distinct memory of the way his voice smelled. The child still “hung on like death” (3) to the father that he has loved since he was born. He has no idea the personal struggles his father is dealing with. Although the situation is bad, the reader can gain no insight into what events led up to this drunken waltz. There is no mention of a mother, which can gain speculation as to why this is happening. It’s also possible that there is nothing wrong based off of the first few lines of this passage. Later, however, the reader gains insight into how awful and tragic this event really is. The second stanza depicts a struggle between Father and Child that should never happen, no matter how tense the situation is. The situation escalated so much that “the pans slid from the kitchen shelf” (6) and that not even the mother, who is now pictured, can even intervene. A true struggle is depicted here. Still, there is no inclination as to whether or not the child was being difficult, or just an innocent bystander. One stanza later, the author is being dragged by the scarred hand that had just beaten him. The father is so drunk that he can’t even walk straight “at every step you missed my right ear scraped a buckle” (11-12). The child describes how the father takes his innocence away in every hit with a hand that is “caked hard by dirt” (14), which could be thought of as a result of a father’s rigorous blue collar work day, ending in drowning the sorrows from working 12 hours a day at awful pay to support a family. The father is most likely depressed with his life, and the only way he makes it better is to drink. The child finally gets taken to bed, “still clinging” (16) to his seemingly unloving father, searching for something more at the bottom of a bottle which will only be empty by the time the sun rises, contributing to the ruthless cycle of these drunken dances with his child.

The child’s account of this incident is brimming with imagery, from the description of the father’s appearance, smell, and attitude. The author doesn’t, however, depict the way he feels about the incident, seemingly shutting the whole thing out. Seemingly normal, the child recounts his tale with no emotion, just the use of descriptive and vivid language to clue the reader into every detail of what’s happening, but not to what he’s thinking. The reader could take an educated guess and say that this is an everyday occurrence in this household, which happens more frequently than most people think. According to childhelp.org, a case of child abuse is reported every 10 seconds. This goes to show that things like this happen more times than not, and that the imagery in this story is superb at exemplifying the struggle child abuse victims take on a daily basis, shown through the eyes of a young child.

Roethke also uses great detail when writing this poem by using blunt words that get exactly to the point. It’s kind of like he’s using a lack of words to show the hurt he feels every day. He also uses short sentences in showing that he doesn’t feel a certain way about his dad drunkenly beating him. His diction shows that he simply takes it as a daily activity where you don’t think, you just go through the motions, much like described in “This is Water” (David F. Wallace), which demonstrates the feeling of going through the motions in a regular routine. One intriguing line is “You beat time on my head” (13). This is impactful because the young child is forced to be disciplined in a way that no child should. He never got to experience being a child, and was somewhat forced to grow up whether he liked it or not. 

Another topic of discussion is the mom. She’s brought up in the third stanza, only to be quickly dismissed. It seems as if she is just as bad off as the child. The lack of elaboration about the mother’s input on the beating gives the idea that she could be a victim of the beatings, or just doesn’t care.  The author does a good job of using few words to interpret the lack of a feeling. The author is descriptive in a way that isn’t. That sounds confusing, but the lack of words and emotion helps portray the feeling of the people in the story completely. It’s short but insightful, and can in some way relate to certain people in certain situations, making them truly understand the way the child feels about his abuse, parents, relationships with them, and life in general.

In conclusion, the author uses a small amount of words to convey a larger picture. His words have an obvious lack of meaning that transfer to the dullness of the child’s life. It seems as if the author, as a child saw everything as bleak and unentertaining. The compelling part of this poem is the fact that the author’s lack of detail opens the door for questions. One thinks about the circumstances, regularity, whether the child deserves it etcetera.  Either way the father isn’t being a good role model by beating his child, only leaving a lasting psychological impact that probably stayed with him for the rest of his life.
