
The love that family members have with one another is almost unbreakable, especially the love between a father and a son. Through the usage of imagery, tone, diction, metaphors and symbols Roethke’s “My Papa’s Waltz” recalls a story of a young child’s love of his father despite the torment and physical abuse that was dealt to him.

Alcohol issues can result in a magnitude of problems in a household.  In line one Roethke presents these ideas to the reader by saying, “The whiskey on your breath // Could make a small boy dizzy:” (1-2).  Roethke uses imagery to paint the picture of an old drunken man who is a physical and emotional mess.  The reader can infer that this is the case because the smell of alcohol is so strong off the father’s body that it makes the boy nauseous.  This presents extreme issues in the house as families with alcoholics can easily be turned upside down by the addicted behavior taking over every aspect of their life and by the side affects of alcoholism such as psychological issue, dependence on the product, and also extreme anger issues and violent tendencies.  

Roethke confirms the reader’s belief of a troubled relationship between the father and son by the proof that violence is occurring in the household.  The author does this slowly by showing commotion then straight forwardly tells the reader of the abuse that’s taking place in the relationship.   In the second stanza of the poem he shows the commotion and trouble in the house by saying, “We romped until the pans // Slid from the kitchen shelf; // My mother’s countenance // Could not unfrown itself” (5-8).   While the tone is questionable in this stanza and lacks addition to the overall theme of the poem, the reader is supplied diction, which if looked deep into, shows the confrontation between the family members.  The first two lines of this stanza are about the father and the son.  When the author uses the word “romped” he is saying that the child and father are chasing each other around the kitchen.  This might seem fun and happy, but when one looks deeper into the meaning of the word romped they see that it is acted out in a “boisterous” way which can be simplified to meaning rowdy and turbulent and many of the times rough and crazy.  

The father and the son are defiantly causing commotion because all the pans are falling everywhere and the kitchen is becoming a mess.  This helps the reader infer that the drunken violence tendencies could be an issue that is causing the chase and the son is trying to escape the physical abuse he might receive from his father, so he runs.  While some may argue that this chase could be just playful games between the father and son it is clear that it is not as in the last line of the stanza the diction of the mothers actions are clear to be negative responses.  Roethke presents the picture of a mother standing and watching the scene unfold in anger.  The reader knows this for sure because Roethke says her facial expression “could not unfrown itself” or in better words she could not stop frowning, which implies that she was unhappy with the current situation.  The author uses diction to show the negative events that take place before the physical abuse starts and even clarifies the negativity by including the mother in the description of events.

In the rest of the poem the author focuses on the physical abuse given to the child.  After he shows us the commotion and negativity of the mother he says, “The hand that held my wrist // Was battered on one knuckle; // At every step you missed // My right ear scraped a buckle” (9-12).   In the beginning of this stanza the reader can tell that the father is a violent man by the child noticing his own fathers knuckles where bruised and “battered” probably from fights.  This presents an extremely dark and negative tone, which adds to the idea that there is turmoil in the house.  The next two lines of the stanza is the first time the reader is presented real evidence of physical abuse on the child.  Roethke uses a metaphor for abuse by saying “At every step you missed // My right ear scraped a buckle” (11-12).  The steps that the fathers missed aren’t literal walking steps or dance steps, but the steps of parenting for a word for word translation to, “at every mistake you made in parenting”.  Another metaphor is present in the second line of that section by a beating given to the child with a belt when the author says, “My right ear scraped a buckle”.  This can be inferred because the buckle refers to one that is present on a belt.  

In the next stanza even more physical abuse is shown.  After Roethke provided proof of abuse with his metaphor of a belt, he gives one last piece of evidence to abuse when he says, “You beat time on my head // With a palm caked hard by dirt” (13-14).  Here the author is more forward on this situation at hand.  The first fine of this refers to his father spending the time away beating on his head.  The reader knows this is a physical beat down on the child because of the second line in the stanza that says the father used his palm.  Though this part of the stanza is very straight forward, symbolism is present.  The dirt that is caked onto the father’s hand is a symbol for all the sin and wrong doings that he has caused within his family. The reader can conclude this because dirt is something troublesome and nasty that no one wants to have on them or in there life, the dirt isn’t physically on his hand because he is a drunk who defiantly would not being doing hard labor, so one can only infer the Roethke uses dirty as a symbol for all the trouble he has caused with that hand.  

While abuse is prevalent in the relationship between the father and son, there is also a light of forgiveness and unconditional love shown by the son.  This is show in the beginning of the poem, after the reader find out that the father is an alcoholic, when the author writes, “But I hung on like death: // Such waltzing was not easy” (3-4).  There is a great amount of symbolism in this part of the poem, which adds to the meaning of unconditional love.  The author uses hanging on like death as a metaphor for the child trying to hold onto a relationship with his father even though his father is a drunk and is falling down hill fast.  He also uses waltzing as a symbol for the love and constant forgiveness he give to his father despite his actions. This gives off a depressing tone as the reader feels sorry for the child who is giving every ounce if himself in a relationship where the father could care less.  More forgiveness and love is shown in the last two lines of the poem, after all the abuse has been revealed to the reader when Roethke says, “Then waltzed me off to bed // Still clinging to your shirt” (15-16).  The author goes back to the symbol of love shown as after all the abuse the father still puts the child to bed as he literally clings to his shirt hoping for better love and a normal family life in the future.

Abuse and hard family life is heartbreaking, and through the uses of various literary devices such as tone, diction, metaphors and the symbol of the waltz for love and forgiveness, Theodore Roethke is able to convey the true unconditional love a son has for his father despite any hard situations at home. 
