
“My Papa’s Waltz” by Theodore Roethke tells the complicated relationship between a father and son.  The narrator is a young boy who confuses his father’s abuse for love. The child does not recognize the father’s harm; he extremely misinterprets his father’s actions. He writes the poem from the point of view of the son speaking to his father. The poem is organized into four small stanzas, so the message gets across quick.  Roethke’s message is that children can misunderstand situations, so that it benefits them.  Roethke delivers his message with the use of a rhyme scheme, simile, metaphor, imagery, and diction.

To illuminate the point of view from which the story is told, Roethke purposely uses a rhyme scheme, “The hand that held my wrist // At every step you missed” (Lines 7 and 9).  The rhyme scheme is meant to make the reader read from the child’s point of view.  Additionally, the rhyme scheme makes the poem seem more simplistic and less mature which further reinforces the age of the narrator.  The rhyme scheme is continued throughout the four stanzas of the poem, “With a palm caked hard by dirt, // Still clinging to your shirt” (Lines 13 and 15). This is an effective technique because the rhyming makes the poem easier to interpret.  Roethke reinforces the idea of a child’s mindset because it is necessary to understand the narrator’s actions.   Understanding the point of view is critical for the interpretation of the poem because the narrator recognizes the abuse without fully comprehending it.

Roethke also uses literary devices to better convey his message.  More specifically, Roethke uses a simile to help the reader imagine the situation being described, “But I hung like death” (Line 3).  The simile compares the child’s grip to death because it is a dangerous and possibly life-threatening situation.  This simile is successful in illustrating the strong hold the child has on his father and his father’s love.   Roethke also uses a metaphor, “You beat time on my head” (Line 13).  The reader can imagine the pounding of the father’s fist against the son’s body.  The metaphor is significant in revealing that the abuse happened for a long time throughout the narrator’s childhood.  Roethke uses multiple literary devices to produce effective imagery.  The situation between the father and son is a graphic, so the imagery helps better picture what is happening.

Roethke’s choice of diction also helped convey the emotions and violence, “I hung on like death” (Line 3).  Death has a negative connotation, so Roethke smartly incorporates it here to show that the situation was scary and serious.  Even though the narrator does not understand he is being abused, he knows he is in danger.  In the next stanza, Roethke says, “We romped” (Line 5). The word romped has more of a playful connotation, so this word is effective in conveying how the narrator does not see or misinterprets the situation at hand.  The word also reinforces the idea the mindset of a child.  Another example of his diction, “Was battered on one knuckle” (Line 10).  The word battered has a rough and negative connotation which adds to the violence and abuse between the father and son.  Furthermore, Roethke juxtaposes the negative words with the playful in the stanzas to further show the disconnect between reality and what the boy perceives.   The juxtaposition is an important aspect of the poem because it shows how Roethke uses the diction in multiple ways to prove the power of words.  Although more subtle than the words themselves, the diction plays an important role in knowing the narrators feelings or emotions in the situation.  

Overall, Roethke writes with rhyme scheme, literary devices, and diction so the reader can truly understand the situation between the father and the son.  He purposely combines these elements to make the story comprehendible; the narrator mistakes his father’s abuse for love because the narrator is too young to fully comprehend his father’s actions.  Furthermore, the narrator does not want to believe that his father is abusing him.  It is clear that the son recognizes the father is mistreating him, but he does not want to believe his father would actually hurt him like that.   More broadly, the situation in the poem shows the status of someone in familial relationships can lead to maltreatment.  Had the boy been a brother to his father he would have recognized that the abuse was unwarranted despite the father being older.  The situation in the poem shows how love can blind reality. 
