My Papa's Waltz

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“My Papa’s Waltz” is a poem written by Theodore Roethke (1908-1963).[1] The poem was first
published during 1942 in Hearst Magazine and later in other collections, including the 1948
anthology The Lost Son and Other Poems.[2]

The poem takes place sometime during the poet's childhood and features a boy who loves his
father, but is afraid of him. The boy is waltzing with his father, who is drunk and described as
having battered knuckles and dirty palms. “My Papa’s Waltz” deals with themes of family,
relationships, confliction, fear, and love. Like other pieces written by Roethke, “My Papa’s
Waltz” draws from the poet's relationship with his father. “My Papa’s Waltz” is considered to
be one of Roethke's best works. It fits into the wider context of Roethke's work due to the role
the father plays in the narrative.

The last line of the poem, “Still clinging to your shirt,” indicates that the waltz and events that
transpired had happened before and would happen again, reinforcing that the boy loves his
father, despite the way he is treated.

Background and origin

Roethke began writing poetry while in high school, and began his attempt at approaching
poetry more seriously while in graduate school at the University of Michigan.[3] Years before
the publication of "My Papa's Waltz," Roethke began suffering from manic depression and was
hospitalized in 1935. Roethke continued to struggle with his bipolar disorder for the entirety of
his career.[4]

Roethke is believed to have begun "My Papa's Waltz" in 1941. The poem was first published in
Hearst Magazine in 1942.[5]
Theme and tone
Since its publication critics have provided varying interpretations of "My Papa's Waltz." Most
critics note that the poem is a tug of war between love and fear. Karl Malkoff asserts that the
musical meter of "My Papa's Waltz" conveys the boy's combined admiration and fear and the
father's affection and violence.[6] David Mills describes "My Papa's Waltz" as a "lovely rough
tenderness" that is meant to make readers feel "uncomfortable," and implies that its central
theme is the characteristics and dynamic between the father and son, saying, that because his
father died when Roethke was still a young man, the poem offers more sentiment in the line:
"But I hung on like death."[7]

The Theodore Roethke Collection at the University of Washington holds two of Roethke's
original holographs of "My Papa's Waltz," entitled "MS-A" and "MS-B," which John McKenna
feels prove that tone was a poetic device to which Roethke paid close attention.[5] It can be
found that Roethke changed the gender of the child from a girl to a boy and the word
"unscrew" to "unfrown" in the revised "MS-B" version of the poem. McKenna notes that the first
change was most likely made so that Roethke could maintain the scary feel that was initially
intended in the poem by making the parent and child the same gender while keeping a loving
tone throughout the dance. McKenna suggests that Roethke's revision of "unscrew" could be
due to an unwanted sexual undertone regarding the mother, whereas its focus is structured
around the father's imposing ruggedness.[5]

"MS-B" also changed the line "My forehead scraped a buckle" to "My right ear scraped a
buckle." This was done in order to add a sense of informality to the dance; with the boy's head
facing away from the father, the poem reads as more of a spur of the moment imperfect
dance between a child and a parent. The tone then switches from positive to negative with
revisions made in the fourth stanza, changing the words "kept" to "beat" and "hand" to "palm."
Both of these revisions allow for a change in tone in regard to painting the father as an
assertively dominant figure over the boy. It is in these subtle shifts between positive and
negative tones that Roethke is swaying readers back and forth, much like a waltzing rhythm.[5]
Through these revisions, Roethke balances negative and positive themes within the waltz
taking place and, with this, McKenna argues that there isn't a correct way to read "My Papa's
Waltz," as no family relationship is easy, and all are "seldom one-dimensional."[5]

Ronald Jannsen states that the poem ends with the tender scene of a father waltzing his son
off to bed, which he states contributes further to the poem's balance. This scene could be
interpreted in one of two ways: either a heartfelt ending after and arguably negative climax or
that the intense violence will be carried over into the bedroom with an implied sexual
connotation, especially considering the implication that the father is drunk.[8] Neither endings
to Roethke's tale is confirmed; however, both serve two different interpretive tones. The
challenge of determining the overall tone and what is actually happening derives from the
sense of amusement and merriment that comes with Roethke's word choice, the feelings
most associate with dancing, and that the poem reads as though the dance is a consensual
act of roughhousing that many fathers and sons do.[9]
Some critics have argued that the violence displayed in the poem is psychological rather than
physical, given that in his adulthood, Roethke recites an event that remains unclear as to
whether he was abused or not.[10]

Rhythm and metre

"My Papa's Waltz" is made up of an iambic rising rhythm, with stressed and unstressed beats
that match the three-beat rhythm of a waltz. The poem has been described as a dance itself
and, beneath its surface, the poem's rhythmical elements guide the narrative in its balance
between positive and negative thematic interpretations.

Discussing Roethke's prose, Carolyn Kizer states that Roethke set himself a certain
expectation of which he was determined to replicate the tone and set the scene of the dance
with his father as a child for his readers, and in order to do so he had to implement each
poetic device regarding word choice and form. His goal with writing "My Papa's Waltz" was to
show what was going on and recapture the feelings that were lived through, not just by simply
writing about it.[11]
An extra unstressed syllable on the word "dizzy" is the first instance in which the rhythm has
been disrupted in a hypermetric line, throwing it off balance, like the boy during the waltz. This
same effect happens with the words "slid from" when the pans slide from the kitchen shelf in
the second stanza. This line begins with a trochee, changing the rhythm from rising to falling.
In an analysis addressing the rhythm of Roethke's works, Sandford Pinsker suggests that the
"metric formality" of "My Papa's Waltz" takes the disorganized rhythms of a tensely emotional
experience and cushions it with a sense of cheerful tones, ultimately serving up a satiric wit in
its four stanzas.[12]

Roethke's word choice, syntax, and the other elements used to create the rhythm in "My Papa's
Waltz" are considered to be the devices that make up the experience of the waltz itself. These
devices include the poem's slightly fabricated prosody that allows readers to connect with boy
on a personal level as he dances with his father into the kitchen under frightening and loving
circumstances.[13]

Critical reception
Some critics believe that Roethke's struggle with his mental health allowed for him to have a
profound outlook on reality, in which he sought to find his place in the world and was granted a
"mythical insight" through the highs and lows of his episodic depression. With this insight, it's
said that in his writing Roethke implements the most basic elements of one having lived
through divine maturity: "outward journey," "inward growth," and a "loving relationship."[14] As
with other works in his collected poetry, "My Papa's Waltz" is Roethke taking himself back into
another phase of his life to confront that which he couldn't in the past.

Most critics today recognize the poet's attempt at a tonal balance between fear and delight,
and its implement of a rocking rhythm in its metre and rhyme-scheme. Critics have noted
Roethke's use of a joyfully frolicsome rhythm regarding a poem centered on a child's waltz.
"Romped"[15] and "dizzy"[16] are two words used in the poem that most associate with childlike
behavior, and it's because of Roethke's diction and word choice that, for years, his readership
have overlooked an overarching theme surrounding the poem. Comparing the consistency of
the two dominant tones, John Ciardi argues that "My Papa's Waltz" is a "poem of terror"
because of the boy's unresponsive unease and the fact that during a supposed good-natured
dance he is hurt by his father.[17] His interpretation suggests that the boy's dizzying and the
pans sliding off of the kitchen shelf suggests that the waltz described is not a pleasant one,
where traditionally the word "romp" would imply a reaction from glee. Ciardi considers the
mother's frown, the belt buckle scraping the boy's ear and the boy being struck by his fathers
rough hands, and says that the two are romping, yet, until the boy is "dumped into bed" he
must "cling like death."[18] Some have urged that the ideas expressed in the poem are a
proclamation of animosity towards the poet's father, while other critics have suggested there
is an ironic uncertainty, for Roethke's apprehension spawns from feelings of love and hatred
clashing with one another throughout his youth and time with his father.[19]

Because of the ongoing debate between those who view the thematic elements of "My Papa's
Waltz" in a positive light and those who deem it a traumatic memory, the poem has been both
praised and denigrated by critics. George Wolff has compared "My Papa's Waltz" to other
works by Roethke, such as "Dolor" and "The Geranium," saying that these, and poems included
in "Meditations of an Old Woman," "In a Dark Time," and "The North American Sequence," are
"his best and most representative work[s]."[20]
Remedial usage
In analytical psychology, "My Papa's Waltz" and other pieces published in The Lost Son and
Other Poems are used as a means of psychotherapy to treat those suffering from alcohol
dependence. W. D. Snodgrass claims that Roethke's poems exemplify that human reason and
motive are hidden under human emotion in youth and into adulthood, stating that "My Papa's
Waltz" allows its reader to approach and reflect on their own personal memories that they've
lived through during youth in a manner that remains true to the structure and diction of the
Roethke's poem.[21]

References
1. aapone (2005-05-18). "My Papa's Waltz by Theodore Roethke - Poems | Academy of
American Poets" . My Papa's Waltz. Retrieved 2019-04-05.
2. "My Papa's Waltz | Encyclopedia.com" . www.encyclopedia.com. Retrieved 2019-04-05.
 3. Seagar, Allan (1968). The Glass House: The Life of Theodore Roethke. New York: McGraw
Hill Book Company. p. 17.
4. "Theodore Roethke" . Poetry Foundation. 2019-05-11.
5. McKenna, John J. (1998). "Roethke's Revisions and the Tone of 'My Papa's Waltz.' " (PDF).
11 (2): 34–38. ISSN 0895-769X – via JSTOR.
. Malkoff, Karl (1966). Theodore Roethke: An Introduction to the Poetry . New York &
London: Columbia University Press. pp. 57 . ISBN 978-0-231-08650-9.
7. Mills, David (March 15, 2015). "Poet's corner - My Papa's Waltz, by Theodore Roethke
(1908-63)" . News Bank.
. Janssen, Ronald J. (1986). Roethke's MY PAPA'S WALTZ. Explicator 44.2. pp. 43–44.
9. Ciardi, John (1975). How Does A Poem Mean?. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company.
10. Merchant, Eli (2017). Roethke's "My Papa's Waltz": A Waltz Macabre. p. 67.
11. Carolyn, Kizer (2001). On Poetry and Craft: Selected Prose (Writing Re: Writing).
Washington: Copper Canyon Press. p. 69. ISBN 978-1556591563.
12. Pinsker, Sanford (1979). "AN URGE TO WRESTLE / A NEED TO DANCE: THE POETRY OF
THEODORE ROETHKE". CEA Critic. 41 (4): 12–17 – via JSTOR.
13. Barillas, William (2015). Meter in Theodore Roethke's MY PAPA'S WALTZ. 73. University of
Wisconsin-La Crosse: Routledge Taylor and Francis Group, LLC. pp. 9–12.
14. Bowers, Neal (1982). Theodore Roethke: The Journey from I to Otherwise . Missouri: The
University of Missouri Press. pp. vii . ISBN 978-0-8262-0347-2.
15. "Definition of ROMP" . www.merriam-webster.com. Retrieved 2019-04-22.
1 . "Definition of DIZZY" . www.merriam-webster.com. Retrieved 2019-04-22.
17. Fong, Bobby (1990). "Roethke's "My Papa's Waltz" ". College Literature. 17 (1): 79–82.
ISSN 0093-3139 . JSTOR 25111845 .
1 . Ciardi, John (1958). The Silences of Poetry. Manuscript Division, Library of Congress. p. 99.
19. Kalaidjian, Walter B. (1987). Understanding Theodore Roethke. Colimbia: University of
South Carolina Press. p. 51. ISBN 978-0872495135.
 20. Wolff, George (1981). Theodore Roethke . Clermont General and Technical College of the
University of Cincinnati: Twayne Publishers, A Division of G. K. Hall & Co. pp. 132 .
ISBN 978-0-8057-7323-1.
21. Snodgrass, W. D. (1965). That Anguish of Concreteness - Theodore Roethke's Career,"
Theodore Roethke: Essay's on the Poetry (Arnold Stein ed.). University of Washington
Press. p. 81.

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