My Papa's Waltz

My Papa's Waltz
Theodore Roethke

The whisky on your breath
Could make a small boy dizzy;
But I hung on like death:
Such waltzing was not easy.

We romped until the pans
Slid from the kitchen shelf;
My mother's countenance
Could not unfrown itself.

The hand that held my wrist
Was battered on one knuckle;
At every step you missed
My right ear scraped a buckle.

You beat time on my head
With a palm caked hard by dirt,
Then waltzed me off to bed
Still clinging to your shirt.

This Roethke poem takes an affectionate scene from childhood--a father dancing with a child--and problematizes it with a complex tone. The rhythms and rhymes suggest comedy and playfulness; "dizzy" and "easy" as well as verbs like "waltzed" and "romped" contribute to the sense that the speaker is enjoying the experience. In contrast with some highly adult images--whiskey, a battered hand--however, the poem becomes much more difficult to read. The violence of the poem is fairly explicit, with the speaker's ear scraping a buckle and hanging on "like death." Images that could decide the poem's tone are ambiguous, such as the father beating time on the speaker's head, an act which could be violent or playful. Whether comic or violent, the speaker is bound to his father for paternal support, if not for love and affection.

The poem's unique speaker--clearly a child--makes it unique. The elements of voice that suggest childhood are also easy enough to recognize that I think this poem is a good one to introduce the idea of speakers and voice. With that in mind:

1) How old do you think the speaker is in this poem? What makes you think so?
2) What is the tone of this poem? Is it violent, or playful? List tone words that suggest each. Can you arrive at a conclusion, or is the poem ambiguous?
3) Consider the concluding image. How does this change your reading of the poem's tone (if at all)? What does the speaker's age tell you about this image?

The instructor should note that the speaker is clearly young, or remembering an experience with his father. The instructor should note the presence of a mother, the playful language, and the rhyme as a way of communicating the age; however, the instructor should also note the imagery of violence that complicates the tone. The importance of the ambiguity serves to reinforce the idea that meaning is flexible. The concluding image should serve differently in context of the two different tones. In the playful tone, it suggests paternal affection. In the violent one, it speaks more to the need for a paternal figure in the speaker's life.

This poem, another softball, represents another easy way of thinking about ambiguity of meaning. Moreover, the unusual speaker allows students to understand that poetry is not a form for old white men, but a venue for disparate and varied groups to expose their emotions and air their concerns.