My Papa's Waltz

My Papa's Waltz is a poem by Theodore Roethke can be intureperated in many ways. Some people see it as abuse, the dad is an alcoholic, they argue that even though he was not in his right mind at the time he was still purposefully physicly harming his son. others argue that he was simply waltz that got a little rough.

For me it depends on how you choose to see it, how do you know why the mother was frowning, was it because of her dissaproval towards the fathers actions with the child. Did she think that his roughhousing ad gone to far? Or was it because she was mad that their wlzing had caused her pots and pans to fall.

There is plenty of evidence that points in either direction; you beat time on my head implies a beating harsher than tapping. We romped until the pans/slid from the kitchen shelf romping, as we know (thank you Charlie) means to have "lively play" there is no note of sadness they are in the boys words, playing!

By no means does he meantion pain, or acual assalt. But then again we are missing some crucial information. First of all how old was this kid, did he understand what was happening; and if it was abuse, is he old enough to tell that it was wrong?

Was this an often affair for the father? Is the boy describing something that happened once? or something that happened many times? For me when /I had first read this poem I had no idea what it was about. People around me kept speaking about what a sad poem it is; and all I could think of was, why?

The more I read it the more I saw, the subtle referances to the waltz, the beating. But as I examined it more, I saw that in fact it could be different. It could have been one night in many and the father truely tried to waltz, it might have been a drunk waltz, but not abuse.

The more I read it the less is clear. Poems always seem to be that way, you think you've figured them out, that you've got all of their secretes. And then you find out. You don't.