Blog 10 - A Dance Or A Beating?

Hallelujah, I found a poem that I like. Probably because I thought it was a terrible poem, but then realized it could be a really happy one. So, it think I like it because I was so relieved about the different meaning. There are two different ways to interpret “My Papa’s Waltz” by Theodore Roethke. It can be about a father bonding with his son or a father beating his son. So, lets start from the beginning and work our way down the poem. The first line, “The whiskey on your breath could make a small boy dizzy” (1-2). This can mean that the father just had one drink to unwind after work. Whiskey does have a strong nasty smell that can just make a small child dizzy. But, it can also mean that the father came home wasted and reeks of whiskey. The next line is “But I hung on like death; Such waltzing was not easy” (3-4). The father could just be a clumsy dancer so the son has to hold on to keep up with is father. Or, the son held onto his father because he did not want to restrain from a beating to make it worse. The fifth line says, “We romped until the pans slid from the kitchen shelf” (5-6). Romped is a word meaning rough play. The father’s dancing could be so clumsy that

he his running into things, causing them to fall over. Although, romped could be used to try to camouflage exactly how violent the father is. The pans could be falling because the father is beating his son. Next, the poems says, “My mother’s countenance could not unfrown itself” (7-8). The mother could have been frowning and without action for two different reasons as well. She could have been upset that the father was making the son all wired up before bedtime and making a mess of the house. However, she did not want to interrupt their bonding time. Yet, if the father is beating the son then the mother could be too afraid to interrupt, especially if the father is drunk. The next two lines state, “The hand that held my wrist was battered on one knuckle” (9-10). The fathers hand could be “battered” from a hard day at work, if his job requires a lot of labor. Otherwise, if the father
is an alcoholic he might get into a lot of fights, causing his knuckles to be mess up. The 11th and 12th lines of the poem are “At every step you missed my right ear scraped a buckle.” This implies that the son’s height is at the level as his father’s waist. The boy could be standing on his father’s feet so they can dance together. This way, if the father misses a step, the son’s ear scraps against his belt buckle. However, the father could be using his belt to beat his son. If the father is drunk, he could stumble and miss what he is aiming for, causing the belt to scrape his ear instead. Then the poem says, “You beat time on my head with a palm caked hard by dirt” (13-14). This could mean the father is trying to keep the rhythm of the dance by playing the beat on his son’s head. Or, some would take it as the father is literally beating his son’s head. The father’s hands are probably dirty from work. Finally, the last two lines are, “Then waltzed me off to bed still clinging to your shirt” (15-16). This can either be the father is actually dancing with his son to his bedroom, or the father is beating him away. So, the son would continue to hold his shirt in order to keep balance to finish dancing or because he is too afraid to move away. To summarize these two meanings; The father had a drink to unwind and is dancing and bonding with his son before bedtime. Or, the father is an alcoholic and came home and beat his son before bedtime. It is very interesting to think that this one poem can have two completely different meanings. Which way did you interpret the poem?