Theodore Roethke incorporates multiple different elements in his poem “My Papa’s Waltz” in order to convey some very heavy messages. What appears at first read to be a light hearted work about the relationship between a father and son and their nightly dancing around the house, is revealed to be a much darker tale of abuse and inner conflict. Roethke successfully incorporates a larger message within his poem by utilizing a distinct choice of words and the connotations associated with these words. 

At first glance, the word that tend to really stand out within the poem are whiskey, dizzy, waltzing, romped, and perhaps mother. The reader is immediately exposed to language that describes drunkenness and rough housing despite the title leading them to believe the poem is recounting a waltz- a traditional and formal partner dance. The inconsistency between the author’s word choice and the subject matter that the title leads the reader to believe the poem is about creates a sense of irony early on in the work. Roethke leaves some subtle, and other not so subtle, hints throughout “My Father’s Waltz” that implies that waltzing may not be what is actually going on between father and son. 

In the first stanza of the poem, the reader is introduced to a father figure who reeks of whiskey strong enough to “make a small boy dizzy”. Already, Roethke is hinting at the fact that the father is not in the best condition for a “waltz” let alone to act as a father ought to. The fact that the father is established as a drunk so early on in the poem also dampens the light-hearted tone that the title leads the audience to believe would be ever-present within the poem. A waltz is rarely performed while one partner is highly intoxicated and roughly pulling the other partner around, and that is exactly what appears to be occurring in the poem. This realization helps to reveal that a formal ballroom dance is not what is taking place and that a more violent and sloppy act may be the substitute for these playful descriptors. 

A key word that can be used to decipher the real meaning behind this poem is “romped”. Roethke could have chosen any other word similar to rough housing or horseplay, but instead he chose romped which, when read along with the entirety of the poem, possesses a connotation of sexual abuse. Reading the poem with this knowledge and is this new context, the reader is able to discover unseen aspects of the theme that Roethke wants to convey. Another word that plays an important role in understanding the meaning of this work is “waltz”. The denotation of waltz is a formal ballroom dance in three-fourths time, though, it becomes apparent that what the boy in the poem is describing is far from a ballroom dance. With quotes such as, “every step you missed my right ear scraped a buckle” and “we romped until the pans slid from the shelf”, this “waltz” between the father and son is portrayed as a rough and sloppily performed act. 

The disconnect between how the boy describes this event and how he labels it: a waltz; reveals that he is attempting to romanticize the act, to make it not as bad as it may have been and the theme of family and admiration for one’s parent comes in to play at this point. The boy has clearly experienced something most would see as negative, though he is constantly covering up the true act with light-hearted descriptors and substitution words. This particular word usage is evidence that he is trying to honor the innate admiration a son possesses for his father, even though he is undoubtedly being abused by the man he believes he needs to look up to and respect. An inner conflict of sorts has developed within the son and simultaneously within the poem. The use of light-hearted language to mask much darker and sinister undertones is very similar to what the feeling the boy is experiencing, because although he and his father roughly romp around the kitchen, he remains clinging to his father’s shirt after all is done and he is taken to bed. 

Roethke’s use of an even pace throughout the poem along with a cheerful ABAB rhyme scheme is often purposefully misleading to the reader. Despite the visual choppiness of the poem’s lines, the rhyming tends to mask the darkness of what is happening in the work. Though, the meter of the poem is actually very similar to the waltz Roethke describes because it is the same tempo in which a waltz is performed in: three-fourths time. 

An important word that also needs to be mentioned is mother. This word is only included once, but that holds significant weight when the poem is read in its entirety. It sends the message to the reader that the mother not very present when it comes to the questionable relationship between father and son. The word countenance is also used in the same sentence as mother which raises an interesting point since it was used to describe her facial expression, but also carries the definition of “to tolerate” or “allow”. Tolerating is exactly what the mother is doing in this poem, due to the violent nature portrayed by the father it is justifiable to say that the mother plays a very small role in how matters are handled within this family and is practically forced to sit idly by as the abuse takes place since she holds no ground in the matter. 

Roethke is able to successfully convey the theme of family through his extraordinary word choice particularly because of the connotations that his words carry. The words Roethke chose to use in this poem also help to mask what is really going on between the father and his son, and create the illusion that all is well within the family and only a simple dance is being enjoyed before bedtime. As the audience reads further past each line, it becomes more and more apparent that the denotations of many words don’t necessarily matter as much as how they can make the reader feel in conjunction with the context of the poem. 
