The poem “My Papa’s Waltz,” by Theodore Roethke, is about a son recalling a memory of his father. The father comes in with the smell of whiskey on his breath. He proceeds to waltz with his son. One major discussion surrounding this poem is if the son is recalling a positive or negative memory. Throughout the poem, there are instances where it may seem like a positive memory, such as when the father takes his son to bed but the son does not let go because he wants to keep dancing, and when it may seem like a negative memory, for instance when the father grabs the child’s wrist in a harmful way. Though some argue towards a positive memory, “My Papa’s Waltz” is a recalling of a negative memory because of the diction used and of the ideas behind these words.

No matter what is being analyzed in literature, the same word can have several different meanings tied to it. These meanings, or symbols, can help readers understand the text to a greater degree. In the third stanza, the son recalls a part of the waltz. While the son preforms the waltz with his father, he says, “The hand that held my wrist / Was battered on one knuckle” (Roethke). On the surface, this statement could be seen as the father having torn knuckles because of his work. But below the surface, this statement has a negative effect on the son. The father has battered knuckles because he has been abusive towards the mother and son. At this point in the poem, the father has only hurt the mother with his hands. In this stanza, the son also says, “At every step you missed / My right ear scraped a buckle” (Roethke). The father, being intoxicated, has trouble dancing the waltz and stumbles around. When the father misses a step, the son also misses and hits his father’s buckle. The more the poem is read, the reader can see that this is not the case. The father is being abusive towards the child. Whenever a step is missed in the waltz, the father hits the son, not only on his right ear, but the whole right side of the son’s face, with his belt. The son can only see this moment as a negative memory because of his father’s abusive actions.

Overall, the father in the poem is abusive towards all of the members of the family, which highly contributes to the negative memory. In the fourth stanza, the father begins to show his abuse on the child. The son says, “You beat time on my head / With a palm caked hard by dirt” (Roethke). Through the first reading of this poem, these lines show that the father is beating the tempo of the waltz gently on the son’s head. The father’s hands are covered in dirt most likely because he has a job working for construction, or anything to do with his hands. By looking closer at the text, it can be seen that the father is being abusive towards the son. Instead of tapping the tempo on the son’s head, the father is hurting the son with his watch. The father is still beating with the tempo of the waltz, but it is not a soft, gentle tap. After this, the father ends the waltz with the son. The son says, “Then waltzed me off to bed / still clinging to your shirt” (Roethke). On the surface, the father realizes how late it is and dances his son off to bed, while the son clings to the father’s shirt because he does not want the waltz to end. Below the surface, the father is gipping tight onto the child and dragging him to bed. The son clings to his father’s shirt, trying to defend himself from any more abuse. The son knows if he fights back, the consequences will me more severe. Because the father is abusive towards the child, the son is recalling a negative memory from the past.

The father is not only harmful because he is an abusive father to his family, but also because he an abusive drinker. In the first stanza, the father is introduced as being intoxicated because the son can smell the alcohol on him. The son says, “The whiskey on your breath / could make a small boy dizzy” (Roethke). When the smell of whiskey can be noticed in someone’s breath, it is obvious that that person is under the influence, and has had more than they should. The father in the poem has had more than he should. He is stumbling around with the smell of whisky on his breath, which indicates that he is drunk. The father is harmful to the child now because he has made the son dizzy. The son should not, by any means, be anywhere near alcohol where he can be effected or harmed by it, and the father as completely ignored this rule. The father is now forcing the child to waltz with him. The son says, “But I hung on like death / such waltzing was not easy” (Roethke). It may seem that the father, even though under the influence, wants to teach his son to waltz and the son hangs on because he is interested, but this is not the case. Instead, the father has forced the son into a waltz. The son says that the waltz is not easy, this is because it is a drunken waltz. Being intoxicated means that the person is stumbling around and is having trouble standing on their own, and the father is doing this exactly. The only reason the child hangs on so tight is that he knows when the waltz is finished, it is time for bed. The son knows this because he has danced with his father many times before. The son dislikes that his father has come home intoxicated because he is making the narrator waltz against his will. Therefore, the son sees this as a negative memory. 

Not only does the son see the this as a negative memory, but the mother does as well. She does not approve of the father’s actions as they continue through the memory. In the third stanza, the son and his father are dancing, while the mother watches with a sad look on her face. The son says, “We romped until the pans / slid from the kitchen shelf” (Roethke). It seems that the father and son are having fun dancing. They spin and turn into the cabinets holding the pots and pans until they fall onto the floor. Unfortunately, this is not the case. The father is running the son into the cabinets, making the pans fall. The mother does not approve of the father’s actions, but she cannot do anything to help. The son says, “My mother’s countenance / could not unfrown itself” (Roethke). The mother wants to help the son, but she knows if she tries, the father will be abusive towards her as well. All she can do is watch what is happening to her son. Since the mother cannot help, the son and father continue the abusive waltz causing this to be a negative memory.

The Poem “My Papa’s Waltz” can be seen as a positive memory, but mainly it is a negative memory being recalled by the son. The father is abusive towards his family and alcohol, and the mother cannot do anything to help. The son is hurt and tries to defend himself but nothing seems to work. By looking at the diction used in the poem, and the meaning behind the words Theodore Roethke uses, it can be seen that the son is recalling an overall negative memory from his childhood.
