Theodore Roethke’s, “My Papa’s Waltz,” is a poem about a young boy’s struggle with his extraordinarily drunken father. Throughout the poem, Roethke utilizes descriptive phrases to help the reader understand two key elements of this work. One of those key elements is the barbaric nature of the drunken father. The other key element of this poem is the profound distress of the boy while he has to deal with his father. These two elements together help convey a major theme of Roethke’s poem, which is desperation. Through the entirety of the poem, there is a clear sentiment of desperation for the boy’s well-being. 

The first example of the boy’s desperate nature appears in the first stanza. Here, Roethke states, “But I hung on like death: / Such waltzing was not easy” (lines 3-4). This revealing couple of lines sets the tone for the remainder of the poem. These two lines tell the reader that the boy was holding on aggressively to his father, trying to minimize the agony he was experiencing. Roethke uses the term, “waltzing,” to describe the inebriated actions of the misconducted father. Additionally, Roethke uses the term, death, to illustrate how grave the situation was for the boy. These vivid details help portray the desperate nature of the boy that evening.

The second depiction of the boy’s tiring endeavor is portrayed in stanza two. In this instance, Roethke dictates, “We romped until the pans / Slid from the kitchen shelf; / My mother’s countenance / Could not unfrown itself” (lines 5-8). The imagery employed by Roethke here is another clear indicator of how desperate the boy was in this situation. For example, the pans slid from the kitchen shelf due to the clash between the father and son. This imagery tells the reader that the encounter was so harsh that objects in the kitchen were dislodged from their natural position. Furthermore, Roethke adds that the mother looked on from a distance, with a frown on her face, but could take no action. This detail suggests to the reader that the boy desperately looked to his mother for assistance, but she unfortunately could not do anything to help.

A third illustration of desperation materialized in the third stanza. This time, Roethke says, “At every step you missed / My right ear scraped a buckle” (lines 11-12). These lines are referring to the waltz that the boy was forcefully participating in with his father. Roethke mentions that the father missed steps due to his intoxicated state of being. Also, the boy’s right ear scraped a buckle because he is about waste high, in height, so when the father stumbled, the boy scraped his ear on his father’s belt buckle. This particular instance does not directly highlight the boy’s desperation, however, it does add to the overall daunting sentiment of the poem. In my opinion, the boy was holding onto the father to avoid further physical harm, and because of that, the belt buckle scratched his right ear. This interpretation definitely does exhibit the boy’s unwarranted feeling of desperation.

The final appearance of desperation in this poem can be found in the last two lines. Roethke closes with, “Then waltzed me off to bed / Still clinging to your shirt” (lines 15-16). These two lines are the most obvious examples of the boy’s desperation that was so prevalent throughout the poem. In this scenario, the boy’s conflict with his father is finally coming to an end. However, the last line is arguably the most revealing and important line in the entire poem. In line sixteen, Roethke communicates to us that as the father made his final waltz to the boy’s bed, the boy was clinging to his father’s shirt. This line is the most sufficient evidence for why the boy was feeling desperate throughout his encounter with his father. After the horrifying, scarring experience was coming to a halt, the boy could do nothing more than to cling to his father’s shirt. The imagery of the boy clinging to his father’s shirt suggests to me that the boy would do anything to make it to his bed without his father imposing more pain upon him. The boy is literally holding on for dear life, hoping that this traumatizing experience would end already. In other words, the boy is incredibly desperate to have this nightmare end. 

The characterization of the boy in “My Papa’s Waltz” was developed through a few different literary techniques. These literary techniques were most frequently, imagery and metaphor. Time after time, Roethke used imagery to illustrate the dire situations that the boy was in. For example, Roethke used imagery to depict the complete disarray of the kitchen when the father was “waltzing” with the son. Another example of imagery was when Roethke described the boy’s ear scraping against the father’s belt buckle as the confrontation between the two progressed. One last major use of imagery was when Roethke described the final waltz off to bed. Here, Roethke described the boy as clinging to his father’s shirt. Roethke’s word choice here portrayed an image of the boy struggling to make it through the final stages of the waltz with his drunken father. In conclusion, Roethke’s implementation of imagery in this poem helped portray the feeling of desperation to survive inside the boy’s own head. Additionally, the prevalence of metaphor in this poem was also relatively obvious to the reader. For example, Roethke used metaphor to describe the level of desperation the boy felt as his father abused him throughout the situation. The metaphor here was when Roethke said the boy was clinging to the father’s shirt like death. This particular instance of metaphor further enhanced the description of the boy’s desperate behavior to persevere through his father’s actions. These two literary techniques, imagery and metaphor, were primarily apparent to help the reader grasp the true theme of the poem. This major theme of the poem was the boy’s clear level of desperation, which was the focal point for the duration of this piece.
