My Papa’s Waltz
Theodore Roethke
The whiskey on your breath
Could make a small boy dizzy;
But I hung on like death:
Such waltzing was not easy.
5 We romped until the pans
Slid from the kitchen shelf;
My mother’s countenance
Could not unfrown itself.
The hand that held my wrist
10 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,
15 Then waltzed me off to bed
Still clinging to your shirt.
Making Meanings
First Thoughts
1. How do you think the speaker feels about his father and the rough waltz?
Shaping Interpretations
2. How does the mother feel about the waltz? How would you explain her reaction?
3. How would you interpret line 3, “But I hung on like death”?
4. Death is a word that usually has connotations of loss and sadness. Which other words and images in the poem have negative connotations? Which have positive connotations? You could prepare your response by making a chart like the one below.
| Negative | Positive |
5. How would you express the poem’s message, or theme? (Hint: Does the poem say anything about
love?)
6. The title promises music, and Roethke delivers a three-beat waltz rhythm and a regular rhyme scheme. Scan the poem to show its
meter. What is the rhyme scheme? Read the poem aloud. Do you think it sounds happy or sad?
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