        Words can dictate the theme of any piece of writing. If you’re writing a child’s story you would use positive, happy, and encouraging words, while writing a story about a family issue that you went through the words would tend to be more negative, gruesome, and violent. In “My Papas Waltz” by Theodore Roethke, he uses a mix of words with mainly negative connotations such as “Scraped”, “Death”, “Battered” and “Romped”. The use of the negative words in the poem make it a story about bad times and upsetting moments. 

        There is one thing that will almost never will be viewed as something positive or as something to celebrate. Death is one of the words I feel like never is associated with good times, because of this the poem starts off with a strong upsetting tone. Roethke begins the poem as if a child was recalling an event writing, “But I hung on like death: Such waltzing was not easy”. In this instance the child is with her father, whose breath smells of whiskey, trying to waltz but the child is scared and struggling to keep up with him. If the child was having a good time or felt safe while doing this there would be no need to hang on like death. Roethke shows that this is not a good memory by using death and relating it to how the child felt the fear of receiving an injury due to the father being intoxicated.

        In a poem or writing it can be hard to imagine what others emotions are and see their reaction to certain encounters. Luckily, Roethke knew that this was important to understand the event at hand. He went on to examine that the father and her child “romped until the pans/ slid from the kitchen shelf; My mother’s countenance/ could not unfrown itself” (Roethke, Lines 5-8). If the mother had a look on her face that was disapproving and upset then it is a strong possibility that the event was getting out of control and that she knew nothing good would come from this moment. The father likely “romped until the pans/ slid from the kitchen shelf” (Roethke Lines 5-6) because of is alcohol consumption which can put the child into danger if, for example a pan was to bounce and hit them. 

        While they are dancing the father is holding the child by the wrist when they notice that “The hand that held my wrist/ was battered on one knuckle” (Roethke, Lines 9-10). If you are dancing with someone you love or feel that their safety is your responsibility you would hold the hands of that person gently but tight enough so they feel safe. When the father holds his child’s wrists instead of their hands this makes the child feel as if they have no control in what happens to them. This is something that can be very scary to a kid if they know their father is not in his right state of mind and is struggling to waltz. A battered knuckle can occur if someone had gotten into a fight or had thrown a punch. In this case when her father’s knuckle was battered it shows that previous to this experience he had gotten hurt or angry which is a very upsetting thing for the child to think about. If the father is alcoholic this could lead to more and more issues as the child is growing up.  

        After noticing their fathers knuckle, they recall how they were getting hurt as they were dancing with their father. Even more, the pain was caused because of the fathers ability to control his body. Roethke states “At every step you missed/ my right ear scraped a buckle” (Lines 11-12). Since the father is struggling to take the correct steps with the child, he is scraping the child’s ear with his belt buckle. The child’s ear is getting hurt and it is because his father has drank too much and his motor skills are not up to par. Causing injury to your child is one of the most horific things that can happen and which is why the child can recall this moment in the whole story.

        Finally, after all of the incidents that had occurred everything seems to be over as the child is about to go to sleep. The child recalled still being upset and scared from the previous time resulting in them to still be cautious as the father “Waltzed me off to bed/ still clinging to your shirt” (Roethke, Lines 15-16). This shows that the child was hopeful that this was all over since they were no longer holding on like death. Even though the kid was hopeful they still were worried and didn’t know if they were completely safe from getting hurt by his or her father. This is why the child was still clinging and not yet relaxed and just letting the father to carry them off to bed.

        In whole the poem is about a son or daughter having an unpleasant encounter with their father who had been drinking and accidently ends up scaring and hurting the child. The words that Theodore Roethke chose to describe these events have a strong negative connotation which help to show how the child felt throughout the poem. Not only are the actual actions that occurred in the poem disappointing but Roethke made sure to emphasize the feeling with his word choice.
