Theodore Roethke’s “My Papa’s Waltz” has been interpreted in different ways. This poem depicts a father who comes home drunk after a long day at work and is greeted by his child. The poem describes the two making their way through the house until the father puts the child to bed. Often times people will interpret the father in the poem as being an abusive father who is beating his son after coming home drunk. The correct interpretation is that although the father has come home drunk he and his son have a good relationship.

In the first stanza of the poem the author describes the way the boy grabbed his father’s by saying, “But I hung on like death.” (Roethke 3) This line is showing the care that the son has for his father. It is obvious that the son missed his father and is excited to see him come home. If the son have had a poor relationship with his father he most likely would’ve ran away from his father or he would’ve went and found somewhere to hide. Earlier in the same stanza the author writes that, “The whiskey on your breath could make a small boy dizzy.” This text shows that the boy knew that his father was drunk and still went to him. The boy might not have known at the time what exactly was happening, but it didn’t affect the boy’s affection towards his father. The lines in this stanza support how the poem’s main theme is that the father and the son have a loving relationship, and these are happy memories the author is recalling. 

In the next stanza it is said that they, “Romped around until pans slid from the kitchen shelf.” (Roethke 5-6) The word romped invokes more of a happy mood than one of abuse. Saying that they romped around creates a picture of a son and father smiling and laughing as moved around the kitchen together. Some argue that this encounter is a negative one because the same stanza says, “My mother’s countenance could not unfrown itself.” (Roethke 7) People interpret this as the mother being saddened because the father is hurting his son. The word unfrown shows that, yes, the mother is unhappy with what’s going on but not to that extreme of a level. If the father had been harming the son the mother would’ve had much more than a frown on her face. It makes more sense that the mother is frowning because her husband has come home late at night drunk and is now making a mess in the kitchen that she will presumably be forced to clean up. The description that is given in this stanza seems to be more of a happy memory that a son is looking back on than just one of the times he was beaten by his father. 

The third stanza describes the two as they make their way out of the kitchen and walk throughout the house. As they are moving around the author makes it obvious that the son is still clinging to the front of his father when he says, “At every step you missed my right ear scraped a buckle.” (Roethke 11-12) These lines show that the kid was still hanging onto his, still very inebriated, father as they walked and as most drunk people do he would stumble every couple of steps. Some interpret these lines as saying the kid is being dragged through the house by the father, but if the kid is being pulled by the father than it would be extremely unlikely that the belt buckle would be rubbing on the child’s ear. It is much more likely that the child is clinging to the father’s front so that when the father stumbles the child’s ear scraped the belt buckle. If the child’s ear was being scrapped bad enough that the child was in pain then the boy would’ve simply let go, it is much more likely that this line was meant to show the way he and his father moved about the house together than it was meant to show the father hurting his son while drunk. These details help to make the inference that the son and the father have a good relationship, considering the circumstances, and were playing around after the father came home from work.  

The final stanza tells of the two’s final walk to the child’s bedroom for bed. The first line of the stanza says, “You beat time on my head.” (Roethke 13) Some people read this as the father beating the child but the wording isn’t right to suggest that. When it says, “Beat time” it more refers to the ace at which they are walking at. The father is simple tapping the boys head with every step that they are taking together. The second half of the stanza says, “Then waltzed me off to bed still clinging to your shirt.” (Roethke 15-16) This tells of the father taking the son to his bed room but the son doesn’t want to let go of the father. The father most likely works long hours so the son might not see him as much as he would like to so he likes to make the most of these moments. The word “clinging” shows that the son is trying with all of his power to hold on to his father for just one more second. This “clinging” shows the strong relationship that the father and son share in spite of the obvious flaws that the father has. The words used in this stanza invoke more of feeling of love and wanting to spend time together instead of abuse and sadness.  

The poem “My Papa’s Waltz” is about a father who comes home after a day at work and is drunk. He is then greeted by his son who is happy to see him. The two then stumble around the kitchen playing with each other before the father takes the kid to bed. The two have a good relationship with each other even though the father has a problem with alcohol. The poem is a son who is recalling a good memory he has about him and his father one night.
