Zack Oughriss
Apr. 25, 11
Theodore's poem caught the attention of a remarkable number of scholars, researchers and individual readers who participated in interpreting and analyzing it. This poem is very controversial in term of its meaning, and most readers find its title very intriguing. In fact some believe that the “Waltz dance” reflect a happy and joyful memories in the eyes of the child. According to McKenna John on his revisions and the tone of “My Papa‟s Waltz,” Theodor had a problem choosing the title “Roethke struggled with two choices: "Waltz/Dance" and Papa/Father.” I believe that if Theodor had chosen “My Father Dance” as a title, it would have created more confusion to the reader. The meaning of the word “Dance” is very broad and it doesn‟t elicit any specific picture in the readers‟ minds. On the other hand, the word “waltz” clearly illustrates a picture of a specific dance which performed by two people in a close position wrapping arms around each other. Considering the size of the boy, it was quite hard for him to perform the dance with his father. Apparently, the father was forcing his son to dance with him which had put lot of pressure on the little boy. The main reason why Theodore choses to title his poem “My papa‟s waltz” instead of “My papa‟s dance” is because he felt that any other dance would have been easier for him to perform than the waltz.
The complexity of Theodore‟s poem and its profound sound makes most readers straggle distinguishing between the opposite interpretations of the poem. The reader‟s personal experience has a great impact on interpreting the poem. According to McKenna, this poem speaks to a wide audience and its meaning depends on the experience of the reader. In this context, McKenna claims that “Readers of this poem often hold quite contradictory interpretations of it, depending on what personal experience they filter it through.” It cannot be denied that the reader‟s life experience would play a huge role on interpreting the poem, for instance, a person who had suffered from a difficult childhood dealing with an abusive father would habitually reminiscence all his or her bad memories through the poem and perceive the father as an abusive, Whereas a person who had a joyful childhood and caring father would presumably see the poem as a joyful memory. I agree with McKenna‟s idea of the relationship between the reader‟s personal experience and the content of the poem. To support this idea, Professor Smith found some striking notions about the poem‟s interpretation and stated it on the following lines:
“As reader-response critics have long noted, opening up discussions of a poem to accommodate multiple interpretations can reveal striking things about how individual readers' assumptions and cultural positions affect their understanding of what they read.”
Hence, it is important to recognize the impact of the social and the psychological influence on a person‟s position and outlook of the poem. But to fairly analyze the poem a reader should have a neutral objective point of view.
Is this poem reflecting a child abuse or a drunken father who was deeply loved by his son? This question troubled most of the readers. Some of them had a problem answering this question fearing to misinterpret the poem. My first reaction when I read the poem was unpredictable and I immediately formed a positive impression; perhaps because I haven‟t experienced living with an alcoholic and abusive father. When I read the title, for a moment I thought that the way the son was treated was a father‟s ritual which was accepted by the son and the society on that era. Professor Smith mentioned that he was shocked to learn that his students saw the poem as describing a systematic child-abuse. He stated: “I was shocked to find that most
of my students, on the other hand, had an angry and vehement reaction against a poem that they saw as describing systematic child-abuse.” Apparently, Professor Smith was shocked because he was not expecting his student‟s negative reaction to the poem. He added: “I was so surprised by this unexpected understanding of the poem that without even mentioning my reading, I asked to hear the evidence for theirs”. From looking at the poem from the student s‟ point of view, we can conclude that the students imagined themselves as the abused child perhaps because of their age and affection. On the other hand, if we look at the poem from the professor point of view, we notice the opposite. Perhaps the professor might have been a father at that time and had pictured himself as Theodor‟s father dancing with his son. It is clear that the nature and state of mind of the reader play a significant part in interpreting the poem.
When I read the first two lines of the poem, “The whiskey on your breath; could make a small boy dizzy”, I was intrigued by the choice of the words Theodor used on his poem, for example, the word “whiskey” often symbolizes the bohemian life style. It is unclear why Theodore used the word “whiskey” and why he didn‟t use an alternative word to describe alcohol. Did Theodor‟s father used to buy expensive alcohol such as whiskey? Or maybe there is another reason behind why Theodor used the word whiskey. In both ways, the presence of alcohol is associated with violence. Booby Fong in his essay “Roethke's `My Papa's Waltz,'” mentioned how his students described the “whiskey” “For these students, alcohol is invariably associated with violence, and the mention of whiskey on the breath calls to mind incidents when their fathers came home drunk and "romped" with the family.” This means that violence occur within Theodor‟s family as a result of the drunken father. Additionally, we find the same response from Professor Smith‟s students about violence and alcohol. “Considering my students' sense that violence is being done to the son in this poem thus modifies my own reading in a way that I think makes it more compelling” Fong and Smith‟s students hold the same point of view and believe of the poem unlike their professors who followed a different stream on the poem.
As we go deeper inside the poem, we get to witness more aspects and signs of child-abuse. According to Professor Smith, the word “romped” in the second stanza signified a positive, joyful experience; moreover it holds a positive connotation which strongly shows the healthy relationship between the father and his son. However, I suggest that in spite of the meaning of the word “romped”, the boy seemed to be terrified by his father. Fong says: “all the more terrible because the boy is frightened and hurt by the father, even in play. “We romped," the poet says, but the romp is a dizzying succession of painful glimpses”. There is another play that exhibits more tension between the father and his son. For instance, the chaos in the kitchen with the pans falling on the floor reveals to us that romping was not peaceful which even made the mother to get angry. Fong also mentioned the state of the chaos made by the father “the house is shaking, the mother is frowning, the father's hand is scarred by violence, every misstep in the dance scrapes the father's belt buckle painfully across the boy's ear, and the boy's head is being pounded by that huge, hard palm. It is very interesting to note how Fong describes the situation when the father was romping with his son. “The house is shaking” is very strong metaphor which is close to describing an earthquake. The son was overwhelmed with the dance and admitted that it was not easy “Such waltzing was not easy.” I strongly believe that even if the father‟s waltz dance with his son was out of love, the dance would not be so hard for the boy and also the father would have been very careful dancing with his son.
The first two lines on the stanza,” We romped until the pans; Slid from the kitchen shelf;” portrays another picture that is beyond the son‟s complains about his abusive father. The speaker
also describes on these two lines the financial situation of his family. Apparently, Theodore‟s family lived in a small house with a quite small kitchen. The lack of space in the house caused the pans to fall from the kitchen shelf. Thus we can conclude that Theodor‟s father fails to support his family financially although, he was a hardworking man. Perhaps alcohol took all his money and attention. There is another important element which Theodore mentioned on his poem to reveal some crucial details about his mother‟s disapproval. “My mother's countenance; could not unfrown itself.” McKenna says that “Roethke portrays the mother's view of events as sternly disapproving, highlighted by the change from "unscrew" to "unfrown." It is clear that Theodor and his mother were in a state of disapproval. McKenna, calls the poem “The poem of terror” and he also describes the chaotic situation caused by the drunken father “the mother is frowning; the father's hand is scarred by violence.” Theodor could have used more words which hold a positive connotation to give the readers a sense of happy joyful experience. Yet Theodore used a complex language not to confuse the reader, but perhaps to see if we, as readers would be able to distinguish between good and bad. We can clearly see the abuse and violence not only from the point of view of the son, but also from different readers and scholar‟s perspective.
The line “You beat time on my head” portrays the child‟s courage and illustrates how powerfully Theodore speaks to his father through his poem using the second person “You.” Talking directly to his father Theodore clearly told his father you have inflicted pain on me. The expression “beat time on my head” has a significant meaning which carries a negative tone to it and demonstrates the son‟s painful experience. McKenna says “Certainly, "beat" is a word nearly all respondents refer to when giving the texture of the poem a negative spin.” It is very interesting to note the way Theodor highlights the word beat to show his father‟s abusiveness.
The time here is a significant element because it indicates the prolong period of time which the dad has been controlling and beating his son. Theodore‟s father was a hardworking man despite his aggressiveness and mistreatment to his son. The line “With a palm caked hard by dirt,” demonstrates how the father‟s palm was covered with dirt perhaps he was working at a farm. This line also means that the father didn't take his time to clean up or rest before waltzing with his son. Smith imagined the scene and satiated on the following lines:
“A hard-working father comes home after a long day just in time for his son's bedtime. He doesn't even take time to clean up (he still has "a palm caked hard by dirt") because he wants to spend their few minutes together doing something really fun. So, he dances his son around the little house.”
Another way of viewing this scene is to capture the mother‟s state of mind. The mother seemed to be unhappy and in disapproval of what was happening to her son at that moment. McKenna claimed that the poem has a negative texture as he says: “The poem ends with a primarily negative texture portraying a "drunken father, angry mother, and desperate child" it is true that these three states of minds in the poem reflects a sense of abuse from the father and disapproval from the mother. Therefore, child abuse is recognizable within Theodore‟s poem.
My papa‟s waltz poem clearly demonstrates a vivid picture about a father who lost himself in alcohol and madness. Theodore expresses his feeling and thoughts recalling his painful childhood memories through his poem. The complexity of “My papa‟s waltz” on its tone and word choice uses made it harder on most of the readers to give a clear solid interpretation. The question which most readers often ask when reading this poem is “Is this poem reflecting a child abuse or a son‟s love to his father?” depending on the reader‟s social and personal experience, this question has more than one answer. I strongly believe that Theodore's poem
certainly reflects a painful childhood experience of physical and physiological abuse. Theodore‟s poem is a clear definition of violence and child mistreatment.
Fong, Bobby. "Roethke's `My Papa's Waltz'." College Literature 17.1 (1990): 78. MasterFILE Premier. EBSCO. Web. 9 Apr. 2011.
McKenna, John J. "Roethke's Revisions and the Tone of 'My Papa's Waltz'." ANQ: A Quarterly Journal of Short Articles, Notes, and Reviews 11.2 (1998): 34-38. MLA International Bibliography. EBSCO. Web. 8 Apr. 2011.
Roethke, Theodore. “My Papa‟s Waltz.” The Collected Poems of Theodore Roethke. New York:
Anchor Books, 1975. 43.
Viterbo University. Theodore Roethke's "My Papa's Waltz": A Reader's Response 30 Jan. 2007 <http://www.viterbo.edu/personalpages/faculty/GSmith/TheodoreRoethke.html>
Apr. 25, 11
Lost Between Love and Abuse
Since the time of Adam and Eve, parents have played a major role in upbringing children and reproducing more generations. In most societies, the father has been the backbone of the family and played a major role in providing support and stability to the family. Yet, the role of the father differs from a family to another. While some fathers focus only on feeding and educating their children, others focus on every aspect of their children‟s lives. The father‟s leadership often drives the children to have a close relationship with the father. Sons often see the father as their role model and build a father-son relationship. Yet, the father-son relationship can be either weak or strong depends on the father‟s concept of parenthood. The American poet Theodore Roethke (1908-1963) describes the relationship between him and his father through his poem “My Papa‟s Waltz.” Theodore reveals his painful memories of his difficult childhood in a critical age when many children wouldn‟t ask for anything more than the love of their parents. Professor Grant T. Smith “Theodore Roethke's „My Papa's Waltz‟: A Reader's Response”, explains how his students value the father-son relationship in Theodore‟ poem, he believes that “Their primary argument that this poem depicts a harsh father-son relationship was that the description of the dancing is violent.” Conversely, some readers disagree with this statement and think that the father-son relationship on Theodore‟s poem in fact unleashes a cohesive bond between the father and his son. Theodore‟s poem “My Papa‟s Waltz” vividly reflects a picture of child abuse through the child‟s voice.Theodore's poem caught the attention of a remarkable number of scholars, researchers and individual readers who participated in interpreting and analyzing it. This poem is very controversial in term of its meaning, and most readers find its title very intriguing. In fact some believe that the “Waltz dance” reflect a happy and joyful memories in the eyes of the child. According to McKenna John on his revisions and the tone of “My Papa‟s Waltz,” Theodor had a problem choosing the title “Roethke struggled with two choices: "Waltz/Dance" and Papa/Father.” I believe that if Theodor had chosen “My Father Dance” as a title, it would have created more confusion to the reader. The meaning of the word “Dance” is very broad and it doesn‟t elicit any specific picture in the readers‟ minds. On the other hand, the word “waltz” clearly illustrates a picture of a specific dance which performed by two people in a close position wrapping arms around each other. Considering the size of the boy, it was quite hard for him to perform the dance with his father. Apparently, the father was forcing his son to dance with him which had put lot of pressure on the little boy. The main reason why Theodore choses to title his poem “My papa‟s waltz” instead of “My papa‟s dance” is because he felt that any other dance would have been easier for him to perform than the waltz.
The complexity of Theodore‟s poem and its profound sound makes most readers straggle distinguishing between the opposite interpretations of the poem. The reader‟s personal experience has a great impact on interpreting the poem. According to McKenna, this poem speaks to a wide audience and its meaning depends on the experience of the reader. In this context, McKenna claims that “Readers of this poem often hold quite contradictory interpretations of it, depending on what personal experience they filter it through.” It cannot be denied that the reader‟s life experience would play a huge role on interpreting the poem, for instance, a person who had suffered from a difficult childhood dealing with an abusive father would habitually reminiscence all his or her bad memories through the poem and perceive the father as an abusive, Whereas a person who had a joyful childhood and caring father would presumably see the poem as a joyful memory. I agree with McKenna‟s idea of the relationship between the reader‟s personal experience and the content of the poem. To support this idea, Professor Smith found some striking notions about the poem‟s interpretation and stated it on the following lines:
“As reader-response critics have long noted, opening up discussions of a poem to accommodate multiple interpretations can reveal striking things about how individual readers' assumptions and cultural positions affect their understanding of what they read.”
Hence, it is important to recognize the impact of the social and the psychological influence on a person‟s position and outlook of the poem. But to fairly analyze the poem a reader should have a neutral objective point of view.
Is this poem reflecting a child abuse or a drunken father who was deeply loved by his son? This question troubled most of the readers. Some of them had a problem answering this question fearing to misinterpret the poem. My first reaction when I read the poem was unpredictable and I immediately formed a positive impression; perhaps because I haven‟t experienced living with an alcoholic and abusive father. When I read the title, for a moment I thought that the way the son was treated was a father‟s ritual which was accepted by the son and the society on that era. Professor Smith mentioned that he was shocked to learn that his students saw the poem as describing a systematic child-abuse. He stated: “I was shocked to find that most
of my students, on the other hand, had an angry and vehement reaction against a poem that they saw as describing systematic child-abuse.” Apparently, Professor Smith was shocked because he was not expecting his student‟s negative reaction to the poem. He added: “I was so surprised by this unexpected understanding of the poem that without even mentioning my reading, I asked to hear the evidence for theirs”. From looking at the poem from the student s‟ point of view, we can conclude that the students imagined themselves as the abused child perhaps because of their age and affection. On the other hand, if we look at the poem from the professor point of view, we notice the opposite. Perhaps the professor might have been a father at that time and had pictured himself as Theodor‟s father dancing with his son. It is clear that the nature and state of mind of the reader play a significant part in interpreting the poem.
When I read the first two lines of the poem, “The whiskey on your breath; could make a small boy dizzy”, I was intrigued by the choice of the words Theodor used on his poem, for example, the word “whiskey” often symbolizes the bohemian life style. It is unclear why Theodore used the word “whiskey” and why he didn‟t use an alternative word to describe alcohol. Did Theodor‟s father used to buy expensive alcohol such as whiskey? Or maybe there is another reason behind why Theodor used the word whiskey. In both ways, the presence of alcohol is associated with violence. Booby Fong in his essay “Roethke's `My Papa's Waltz,'” mentioned how his students described the “whiskey” “For these students, alcohol is invariably associated with violence, and the mention of whiskey on the breath calls to mind incidents when their fathers came home drunk and "romped" with the family.” This means that violence occur within Theodor‟s family as a result of the drunken father. Additionally, we find the same response from Professor Smith‟s students about violence and alcohol. “Considering my students' sense that violence is being done to the son in this poem thus modifies my own reading in a way that I think makes it more compelling” Fong and Smith‟s students hold the same point of view and believe of the poem unlike their professors who followed a different stream on the poem.
As we go deeper inside the poem, we get to witness more aspects and signs of child-abuse. According to Professor Smith, the word “romped” in the second stanza signified a positive, joyful experience; moreover it holds a positive connotation which strongly shows the healthy relationship between the father and his son. However, I suggest that in spite of the meaning of the word “romped”, the boy seemed to be terrified by his father. Fong says: “all the more terrible because the boy is frightened and hurt by the father, even in play. “We romped," the poet says, but the romp is a dizzying succession of painful glimpses”. There is another play that exhibits more tension between the father and his son. For instance, the chaos in the kitchen with the pans falling on the floor reveals to us that romping was not peaceful which even made the mother to get angry. Fong also mentioned the state of the chaos made by the father “the house is shaking, the mother is frowning, the father's hand is scarred by violence, every misstep in the dance scrapes the father's belt buckle painfully across the boy's ear, and the boy's head is being pounded by that huge, hard palm. It is very interesting to note how Fong describes the situation when the father was romping with his son. “The house is shaking” is very strong metaphor which is close to describing an earthquake. The son was overwhelmed with the dance and admitted that it was not easy “Such waltzing was not easy.” I strongly believe that even if the father‟s waltz dance with his son was out of love, the dance would not be so hard for the boy and also the father would have been very careful dancing with his son.
The first two lines on the stanza,” We romped until the pans; Slid from the kitchen shelf;” portrays another picture that is beyond the son‟s complains about his abusive father. The speaker
also describes on these two lines the financial situation of his family. Apparently, Theodore‟s family lived in a small house with a quite small kitchen. The lack of space in the house caused the pans to fall from the kitchen shelf. Thus we can conclude that Theodor‟s father fails to support his family financially although, he was a hardworking man. Perhaps alcohol took all his money and attention. There is another important element which Theodore mentioned on his poem to reveal some crucial details about his mother‟s disapproval. “My mother's countenance; could not unfrown itself.” McKenna says that “Roethke portrays the mother's view of events as sternly disapproving, highlighted by the change from "unscrew" to "unfrown." It is clear that Theodor and his mother were in a state of disapproval. McKenna, calls the poem “The poem of terror” and he also describes the chaotic situation caused by the drunken father “the mother is frowning; the father's hand is scarred by violence.” Theodor could have used more words which hold a positive connotation to give the readers a sense of happy joyful experience. Yet Theodore used a complex language not to confuse the reader, but perhaps to see if we, as readers would be able to distinguish between good and bad. We can clearly see the abuse and violence not only from the point of view of the son, but also from different readers and scholar‟s perspective.
The line “You beat time on my head” portrays the child‟s courage and illustrates how powerfully Theodore speaks to his father through his poem using the second person “You.” Talking directly to his father Theodore clearly told his father you have inflicted pain on me. The expression “beat time on my head” has a significant meaning which carries a negative tone to it and demonstrates the son‟s painful experience. McKenna says “Certainly, "beat" is a word nearly all respondents refer to when giving the texture of the poem a negative spin.” It is very interesting to note the way Theodor highlights the word beat to show his father‟s abusiveness.
The time here is a significant element because it indicates the prolong period of time which the dad has been controlling and beating his son. Theodore‟s father was a hardworking man despite his aggressiveness and mistreatment to his son. The line “With a palm caked hard by dirt,” demonstrates how the father‟s palm was covered with dirt perhaps he was working at a farm. This line also means that the father didn't take his time to clean up or rest before waltzing with his son. Smith imagined the scene and satiated on the following lines:
“A hard-working father comes home after a long day just in time for his son's bedtime. He doesn't even take time to clean up (he still has "a palm caked hard by dirt") because he wants to spend their few minutes together doing something really fun. So, he dances his son around the little house.”
Another way of viewing this scene is to capture the mother‟s state of mind. The mother seemed to be unhappy and in disapproval of what was happening to her son at that moment. McKenna claimed that the poem has a negative texture as he says: “The poem ends with a primarily negative texture portraying a "drunken father, angry mother, and desperate child" it is true that these three states of minds in the poem reflects a sense of abuse from the father and disapproval from the mother. Therefore, child abuse is recognizable within Theodore‟s poem.
My papa‟s waltz poem clearly demonstrates a vivid picture about a father who lost himself in alcohol and madness. Theodore expresses his feeling and thoughts recalling his painful childhood memories through his poem. The complexity of “My papa‟s waltz” on its tone and word choice uses made it harder on most of the readers to give a clear solid interpretation. The question which most readers often ask when reading this poem is “Is this poem reflecting a child abuse or a son‟s love to his father?” depending on the reader‟s social and personal experience, this question has more than one answer. I strongly believe that Theodore's poem
certainly reflects a painful childhood experience of physical and physiological abuse. Theodore‟s poem is a clear definition of violence and child mistreatment.
Work cited
McKenna, John J. "Roethke's Revisions and the Tone of 'My Papa's Waltz'." ANQ: A Quarterly Journal of Short Articles, Notes, and Reviews 11.2 (1998): 34-38. MLA International Bibliography. EBSCO. Web. 8 Apr. 2011.
Roethke, Theodore. “My Papa‟s Waltz.” The Collected Poems of Theodore Roethke. New York:
Anchor Books, 1975. 43.
Viterbo University. Theodore Roethke's "My Papa's Waltz": A Reader's Response 30 Jan. 2007 <http://www.viterbo.edu/personalpages/faculty/GSmith/TheodoreRoethke.html>
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