My Papa's Waltz

My Papa’s Waltz is a poem that was written by Theodore Roethke in 1948.  This poem describes the violent dancing a boy endures with his father.  It is controversial as to whether or not the boy is enjoying this experience, and whether or not this father is being violent or just lovingly roughhousing with his son.

It is shown in this poem that the father has ingested quite a bit of alcohol, the boy describing it as whiskey, “The whiskey on your breath \ Could make a small boy dizzy” which could lead to one wondering if the father is dancing violently out of alcohol rage, “But I hung on like death: \ Such waltzing was not easy”, or if the father is just a very lively dancer.

This could also bring one to ask if using the word dancing is just another way of showing the father’s violence towards the son. “The hand that held my wrist \ Was battered on one knuckle”, this could be a hint towards the father beating the son or maybe he just hurt his hand somehow.

This poem is extremely hard to decipher, and depending on who you are and how you take in the given information, this could look like simple tomfoolery between a father and son, or it could look like an act of abuse in this family.

I personally think that the father and the son are just having a grand ol’ time, and the reason the son can smell whiskey on his father’s breath is because maybe the father just got back from work, where he might have hurt his hand, and decided to have a relaxing evening drink after a hard, trying day at work.