Theodore Roethke’s “My Papa’s Waltz” is a story told through the eyes of a child. The child tells the story through an innocent point of view, while in all actuality there is a sense of realism that is hidden with irony. The child portrays his father being intoxicated as dancing to the waltz. The rhyme scheme of the poem makes it have a story like feel which is told to a child when they are going to sleep. The rhyme scheme has a childhood storybook like feel which changes the mood of the words that are spoken from the child’s mouth. This is ironic because the poem is not a typical childhood story that is read to a child before bed. It is about a child’s view of his not smooth and drunk father. In Theodore Roethke’s “My Papa’s Waltz, the irony of drunk father, waltz in relation to being intoxicated, and physical interactions are illustrated through elements and passages in the text. 

In the text, the child speaks in a story like feel that sounds like a children’s book that you would read to a child before bedtime.  The irony is that the father is portrayed as an elegant waltz in the child’s eyes but in all actuality he is drunk and cannot walk straight. The drunk father is described with the innocence and a sense of romanticism in the child’s imagination. The child describes that “The whiskey in your breath / could make a small boy dizzy” (1-2). The child makes his father who obviously is drinking have a whimsical feel because he said it made him dizzy. The child did not just say that his father had alcohol in his breath and that was gross. 

The child also says “but I hung on like death: / Such waltzing was not easy” (3-4). The child is holding on to his father because the father is intoxicated and cannot walk straight. The child may think it is a waltz but in reality he is holding on to a father who cannot stand up. The child says “we romped until the pans / Slid from the kitchen shelf” (5-6). When a person is intoxicated, they are known for being clumsy and unstable so the pans falling from the shelf is caused by the damage of the father. The child describes that “My Mother’s countenance’ could not unfrown itself” (7-8). The mother is constantly disappointed at her husband for coming home drunk. The mother does not want her child grow up having a father who cannot even walk straight and who knocks down dishes because of his clumsiness. It seems like with all that is going on, it is night time and the child is getting ready for bed, so this seems to add to the mother’s frustration with the drunk father and innocent child. In a child’s perspective everything is different and their reality can be blanketed with innocence and romanticism that enhances a child’s imagination.

The father seems to have been known for drinking quite a lot. The child says “The hand that held my wrist / was battered on one knuckle” (9-10). The father seems to have beat something in the past because a battered bruise was on one knuckle. Since the father may have a recurring want to become intoxicated, he may have the urge to become physical with his family. The child says “at every step you missed / My right ear scraped a buckle” (11-12). This line implies that the child is small and relatively young since his ear reaches his father’s belt buckle. If the child is holding on to his father who is walking around intoxicated, then he may stumble or his steps could infer that if something happened to him while he was at work or something went wrong, then the child would have to face a physical consequence. This then alludes to physical interactions between the father and the child.

The child also alludes to physical interactions from his intoxicated father. The child also says “you beat time in my head/ with a palm caked with dirt” (13-14).  These lines act as an allusion to physical abuse. Beating time could allude to this being an occurring event where his father got physical. His palm is described as “caked with dirt” (14), which could allude to his father having a job that involves hard physical work but it also could allude to his palm being dirty from the physical abuse that he has put upon his child.  Even though the child has a father who is intoxicated and can get physical at times, he says “then waltzed me off to bed / still clinging to your shirt” (15-16). Even though his father cannot walk straight because he is intoxicated, he still loves his father and still wants the typical father son relationship that every child wants. The father seems to love his child as well because he is taking him to bed even though he is drunk and maybe frustrated from his work or life struggles. The father may show signs of getting physical with his child, but at the end, he still is a father who loves his child and the last two lines describe that.

In Theodore Roethke’s “My Papa’s Waltz” changes the normality of a poem written from a child’s perspective. The typical poem from a child is about the innocence of childhood and doesn’t allude to any problems hidden by a child’s perspective. This child has a perspective that is hidden with innocence and romanticism that shows the true meaning of a child’s imagination.  A young child would not say that their father stumbles and cannot walk straight. Rather they feel that the father is waltzing around with no care in the world. The hidden irony of drunk father, the waltz in relation to being intoxicated, and physical interactions are illustrated through elements and passages in the text. 

 