My Papa's Waltz

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My Papa’s Waltz
-Theodore Roethke
About the Poet

 Roethke (1908 – 1963), an American poet; regarded as one of the most accomplished and
influential poets of his generation. He got Pulitzer prize in 1953 and also got National Book
Awards.
 Roethke attended the University of Michigan, earning a B.A. in 1929. He continued on at
Michigan to receive an M.A. in English in 1936.
 He was also a respected poetry teacher, and taught at the University of Washington for fifteen
years.
 Roethke began his poetry while he was in high school. He is considered one of the greatest
American poets during the twentieth century. Along with his contemporaries such as Sylvia
Plath, Robert Lowell, and John Berryman, he is considered as the pioneer
of confessional poetry. His poetry often takes a traditional form that describes universal
themes and conflicts but sometimes his works are autobiographical.
 Roethke’s work is characterized by its introspection, rhythm and natural imagery.
 His notable poetic device is to include a child’s voice in the poems.
 His important collections of poems are: Words for the Wind & The Far Field
Cont..
 Confessional poetry is marked by its intimate
autobiographical subject matter that is sometimes referred
to as grotesque (weird). Masturbation, depression, suicidal
tendencies, alcoholism, drug abuse are all openly
discussed. This type of poetry is commonly associated with
work from the movement of the 1950's and 60's.
 The pioneer figures- Robert Lowell, William DeWitt
(W.D.) Snodgrass Sylvia Plath and Anne Sexton
 Many consider Theodore Roethke ,who died in the middle
of the movement, also to be a confessional poet.
 In fact, he as a poet, he blends both the romantic and
confessional elements in his poetry.
Basic Ideas of the Poem
 Title- waltz; a kind of dance in which two dancers
move in triple time as they turn together in circles.
 4 stanzas
 4 sentences
 Quartet stanzas
 Rhyme- abab (simple rhyme)
 Words-short and simple (monosyllabic)
 The speaker is a child (The child’s voice)
 A dramatic poem (both dramatic and narrative)
 Characters: father, son and also mother (family)
Subject Matter
 A very simple poem presented in the form of a
dialogue.
 About a duo dance performed by the speaker and his
father on the surface.
 But it deals with the father-son relationship
(conflicting)
 “My Papa's Waltz” describes a tense—potentially
violent—moment in the life of a family. (????)
Summary
 The poem begins with the speaker describing a
memory from his childhood.
 The speaker's father came home drunk, and the smell
of whiskey on his breath was so strong that it could
make the speaker, still a young boy, dizzy (giddy). To
waltz with the drunken man was not easy, but he
would accompany his father hanging like death.
 While waltzing the father and son would move to the
kitchen until the utensils fell from the shelf. His
mother would display the sense of anger and irritation
looking at their activities.
Cont..
 His father’s hand holding his wrist was bruised on one
knuckle and his right ear would get rubbed every time
when the step was missed.
 His father would beat time and again on his head with
his dirty hands and would take to bed while waltzing
off; the boy would move with his father still holding
his shirt.
Themes
 Father-son relationship- conflicting, ambivalent,
ambiguous
 The love and fear expressed by the speaker towards his
father.
 "My Papa's Waltz" conveys the boy's combined admiration
and fear and the father's affection and violence.
 The boy loves his father, despite the way he is treated.
 Masculinity: A big, hard-drinking man, the speaker's
father embodies traditional masculinity with his roughness
and his indirect way of expressing his affection for his son.
Structure
 “My Papa’s Waltz” is a loose ballad form (follows the pattern with
some variations)
 A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads
were originally "dance songs”; They were originally written to
accompany dances.
 A ballad is a type of poem that tells a story and was traditionally
set to music. English language ballads are typically composed of
four-line stanzas that follow an ABCB rhyme scheme.
 A ballad is a poem that tells a story, usually in four-line stanzas
called quatrains. The ballad form is enormously diverse, and
poems in this form may have any one of hundreds of
different rhyme schemes.
 Ballads can be of love, death, the supernatural or even a
combination of the three. Many ballads also contain a moral
which is expressed (most often) in the final stanza.
 Include both narrative and dramatic element.
Four Levels:
1. Literal Comprehension……
2. Interpretation…….
3. Critical Thinking
 A beautifully composed poem; form(loose ballad), rhyme,
choice of monosyllabic and simple words
 Childhood memory; the time spent with his father
 Imbedded nostalgia
 A best dramatic lyric
 It’s sometimes confusing whether he’s admiring his father
or disparaging him.
 The role of the mother seems to have been underrated.
Cont..
 A few questions like:
 Can a drunk father perform this sort of dance with his
small child?
 Can the father be so unmindful about the buckle of his
belt hurting his son’s right ear?
 Can the child maintain the bond of this sort with his
drunkard father?
 If we raise such questions, the poem fails to answer
them and eventually fails to convince the reader fully.
4. Assimilation……..
Questions
1. Write the four levels of interpreting the poem “My
Papa’s Waltz.
2. What is the tone of this poem? Is the speaker’s
attitude towards his father affectionate or resentful?
Explain your answer.
3. Summarize the poem in one long sentence.
4. What picture of the father does the poet/ speaker
portray in this poem? Write in brief.

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Dear Students, wish you all a very

Let me extend you a very warm

About the Poet

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