Virginia Community My Papa Waltz Poem Analysis Essay

Read the following:
- New Critical Analysis Essay about “My Papa’s Waltz”
Write a response to each of the following prompts about this essay, creating four separate sections:

- Write the author’s argumentative thesis statement from this essay. What overall argument about the poem is the author making throughout this essay?
- List the literary elements of a Close Reading that the author of the essay uses to support his thesis. If you need to review these, see the second link (“New Critical Approach”) in Step 3 of Assignment 3.4
- Write the central “main idea” or “topic sentence” the author uses to support the thesis in each of the three paragraphs.
- Copy and paste the sentence that you think is the conclusion.
- MLA 8 Format: A Works Cited entry is not required for this assignment, and in the place of in text citations, refer to the origin of the quote as the “author.”
Poem:
Any interpretation of “My Papa’s Waltz” has to take into account the complexity of the
speaker’s feelings that are brought about by his father’s waltz. A dance should bring two people
closer together. The dance in this poem acts that way, yet the darker side of this waltz, which is a
powerfully unsettling emotion under the surface of this poem, dominates the mood, and the love
and intimacy of the dance do not make a strong impression on the reader.
Theodore Roethke manipulates our emotional response to the poem through a number of
literary conventions, some of which play on the conventions of a waltz. Waltzes are not
technically difficult dances, and they are set to lighthearted, easily accessible music. It is a dance
in which couples sway back and forth as they go round and round. Our emotions and sympathies
do the same thing in this poem: The speaker carefully orders his images to juxtapose frightening
images with comforting images. In the first stanza, for instance, the speaker begins with a
frightening image: “The whiskey on your breath / Could make a small boy dizzy” (1–2). The
second stanza begins with the words “We romped,” undercutting the serious tone of the first
stanza, yet their romping has consequences that remind us again of the seriousness: Pans fall
from the shelf, and the speaker’s mother frowns in disapproval. This pattern is repeated
throughout the poem, and the waltz spins fast and out of control until we can only focus on a
whirling sequence of disturbing emotions rather than a coherent overall feeling.
Roethke uses meter and rhyme to underscore the fact that there is something “off” about
this waltz. A waltz is a carefully ordered and technically precise musical form, and this poem
mimics that form, but it also reveals moments of imperfection. Playing on the fact that a waltz is
written in 3/4 time, Roethke gives each of his lines either six or seven syllables. Yet there is
something lurching about the way he strings together these six and seven patterns: The pattern is
not exact. Nor is the rhyme scheme exact: Slant rhymes like “dizzy”/”easy” (lines 2 and 4) and
“pans”/”countenance” (5 and 7) demonstrate that something is out of place. The speaker makes
note of “every step” his father “missed” (11), and we imagine that he wouldn’t make a good dance
instructor, at least not when he has “whiskey on [his] breath” (1).
We can only speculate as to whether the father in the poem would make a good worker,
a good husband, or a good father. In the last case, the poem leads us subtly to a definite
conclusion. While this is not a poem that screams, “I hate my papa; he was bad to me when I was
young,” it is a poem that connotes physical control to the point of manipulation and even abuse
on the father’s part. This waltz is dangerous, ultimately; its imagery contains a disapproving
mother (lines 7 and 8), a battered knuckle (line 10), a buckle that repeatedly scrapes a young
boy’s tender ear (12), and finally a dirt-caked hand that strikes the boy’s head repeatedly under
the guise of keeping time for the waltz. The fact that the speaker says, “You beat time on my
head” (14), instead of “kept time” reinforces this interpretation. The waltzing ritual is not about
dancing; it is about a man who asserts and maintains physical control over his son even as he
loses control over himself

Continue to order Get a quote

Our guarantees

Delivering a high-quality product at a reasonable price is not enough anymore.
That’s why we have developed 5 beneficial guarantees that will make your experience with our service enjoyable, easy, and safe.

Money-back guarantee

You have to be 100% sure of the quality of your product to give a money-back guarantee. This describes us perfectly. Make sure that this guarantee is totally transparent.

Zero-plagiarism guarantee

Each paper is composed from scratch, according to your instructions. It is then checked by our plagiarism-detection software. There is no gap where plagiarism could squeeze in.

Free-revision policy

Thanks to our free revisions, there is no way for you to be unsatisfied. We will work on your paper until you are completely happy with the result.

Privacy policy

Your email is safe, as we store it according to international data protection rules. Your bank details are secure, as we use only reliable payment systems.

Fair-cooperation guarantee

By sending us your money, you buy the service we provide. Check out our terms and conditions if you prefer business talks to be laid out in official language.