Analyzing: My Papa`s Waltz by
Theodore Roethke
By: Kimberly Zuniga
Chloe Carrere
My Papa’s Waltz
The whiskey 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.
Biography
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Theodore Roethke was born on May 25, 1908, in Saginaw, Michigan.
His uncle, his father and he owned and ran a 25-acre greenhouse where they spent most of
their time together.
His father was named Otto who was a German immigrant.
In 1923 problems aroused between Theodore’s father and uncle which led to the sell of the
green house.
Later in 1923 when Theodor was 14, his father died of cancer and then his uncle committed
suicide
Theodore was pressured to grow up fast to take care of his family .
He suffered from mental illness and was a heavy drinker. Theodore’s father was a drunk as
well.
In 1968 he suffered from a heart attack and died.
Although he was also very close to his uncle, Many of his poems are heavily inspired by his
father; he tends to use nature in many of his poems as a symbol of his dad and their green
house .
Words you probably don’t know
• Countenance – a person`s facial expression
• Romped – playing roughly and energetically
• Battered – injured by repeated use or violence
Type of poem
• My Papa`s Waltz is a dramatic monologue.
• Dramatic monologue – a lyric poem in which
the speaker tells an audience about a
dramatic moment in his/her life and, in doing
so, reveals his/her character.
EX: “The whiskey on your breath, could make a
small boy dizzy; But I hung on like death”
Meter of the poem
• My Papa`s Waltz is an iambic trimeter.
• Iamb – unstressed to stressed
• Instead of having five stressed syllables, It has
3 stressed syllables so it`s a trimeter.
Rhyme
• My Papa`s Waltz has a simple ABAB rhyme scheme.
• Meaning, at the end of every other line in a stanza, there is a
rhyme. Some words almost rhyme but not exactly.
• Rhyme scheme is a pattern of rhymes with a unit of verse; in
analysis each stanza ends rhyme-sound is represented by a
letter.
• The words breath and death both rhyme. Dizzy and easy
rhyme but not quite.
Rhyme Scheme continued
The whiskey on your breath - A
Could make a small boy dizzy; - B
But I hung on like death: - A
Such waltzing was not easy. - B
We romped until the pans - C
Slid from the kitchen shelf; -D
My mother’s countenance -C
Could not unfrown itself. - D
The hand that held my wrist - E
Was battered on one knuckle; - F
At every step you missed - E
My right ear scraped a buckle. - E
You beat time on my head - F
With a palm caked hard by dirt, - G
Then waltzed me off to bed - F
Still clinging to your shirt. - G
Diction/tone
• The tone of this poem is negative. Roethke
words of choice, or diction, is used to talk
about how it was bad when his dad would
drink and “waltz” around.
Diction/tone continued.
The whiskey 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.
1st Stanza
The whiskey on your breath
Could make a small boy dizzy;
But I hung on like death:
Such waltzing was not easy.
• Introduced to a man
who has a strong smell
of whiskey.
• Roethke uses 1st
person to show he is in
the poem.
• When Roethke says
“But I hung on like
death: Such waltzing
was not easy” we
interpret that he’s the
young boy clinging to
the man who smells of
whiskeu.
2nd stanza
We romped until the pans
Slid from the kitchen shelf;
My mother’s countenance
Could not unfrown itself.
• The man is Roethke’s
father, who is a drunk.
• Roethke is playing
around in the kitchen
with his father, and the
pans are sliding from
the shelf, which does
not make the mom
happy
• The drinking is a
problem and that’s
why his mother’s face
could not unfrown
itself.
3rd stanza
• Roethke talks about his father’s
hand being battered on one
knuckle and people interpret it’s
The hand that held my wrist
because of abuse he does to his
family.
Was battered on one knuckle;
• But it’s actually from working in
At every step you missed
the greenhouse.
My right ear scraped a buckle. • “At every step you missed my
right ear scraped a buckle”
interpretation is his father
beating him.
• BUT his father is actually walking
with his son and Roethke
happens to scrape his ear on his
dad’s buckle because he’s at the
buckle’s height.
4th stanza
• “You beat time on my head With a
palm caked hard by dirt,”
You beat time on my head
interpretation is the father, again,
With a palm caked hard by dirt,
hitting Roethke.
• BUT it’s just the weight of his
Then waltzed me off to bed
father’s hand on his head, that is
Still clinging to your shirt.
caked hard by dirt from the
greenhouse.
• “Then waltzed me off to bed still
clinging to your shirt” his father is
carrying him to bed.
• Infer that he is a child by having his
father carry him to bed
Theme
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My Papa’s Waltz doesn’t have a specific theme.
One theme is of Roethke admiring his father as a child.
Although his dad drinks, he still clings to him as a child does when showing love for
their parent.
• EX: “But I hung on like death”
“Then waltzed me off to bed, Still clinging to your shirt”
• Another theme is the complexity of the father/son relationship.
• The father in the house is shown as being masculine and tough, like most fathers
are portrayed. The son is shown as a child, children are portrayed with innocence
and being weak.
• EX: “The hand that held my wrist, was battered on one knuckle”
• “The whiskey on your breath, could make a small boy dizzy”
Playful on negative words
• Roethke uses negative meaning words to describe his dad’s actions or to
describe his dad.
• He uses the word battered to describe his dad’s knuckle. When people
think battered, it’s usually heard in violence terms. But his dad’s battered
knuckles got that way when he was working in their greenhouse.
• “But I hung on like death” Roethke uses death to express how he’s clinging
to his father and not letting go. Roethke uses this expression to also
represent his father’s death and not being able to let go of his father.
• “ You beat time on my head” beat has a negative meaning behind it, when
you are beaten by someone (abuse).
• But Roethke uses beat to describe the weight of his father’s hand on his
head when his dad pats Roethke on the head.
Waltz meter
• In My Papa’s Waltz the first few lines in stanza one use the
meter of a waltz.
• Waltzing is supposed to be light and pleasant, but the whiskey
and dizziness tell of his father being drunk.
• The meter of a waltz is ¾ meter. The first half of the poem
uses a waltz meter of ¾ .
• Roethke’s father although is missing steps in his “waltz”..
• But as his father is drunk, he is messing up the waltz meter.
• Roethke also uses the waltz to show his father is missing
steps, stumbling, but it’s a dance just like the waltz is.
Conceit
• Conceit- an extended metaphor comparing two unlike things.
• My Papa’s Waltz uses the Waltz as the extended metaphor to
his father’s drunken stumbling.
• The waltz is supposed to be swift, simple, and fun.
• Roethke uses the waltz to compare to his father’s drunken
missed steps.
• When someone is drunk, they tend to not walk so straight,
stumble on things, and romp around.
The End.