Wednesday, January 26, 2011

"My Papa's Waltz" by Theodore Roethke

My Papa's Waltz


The whiskey on your breath
Could make a small boy dizzy;
But I hung on like death:
Such waltzing was not easy.


We romped until the pans
Slid from the kitchen shelf;
My mother's countenance
Could not unfrown itself.


The hand that held my wrist
Was battered on one knuckle;
At every step you missed
My right ear scraped a buckle.


You beat time on my head
With a palm caked hard by dirt,
Then waltzed me off to bed
Still clinging to your shirt.



When you're young, mostly everything is all fun and games. Life is a breeze. You get hurt, Momma can kiss the boo boo away. I guess in a way, you aren't aware of things as much than if you were older. When you're older, you understand things better, you see things differently, and you have your own opinion.


When I first read this, I thought this was just another 'family moment' poem. It seemed almost natural since the tone of the poem was a little subtle. I honestly think the boy believes he is waltzing with his 'tipsy' father too. But after reading it a couple more times, I no longer believed that was necessarily the case. 


The idea of abuse or not though, still confuses me though. It's like. I want to believe they're just having fun dancing, but there are lines in the poem that just shout ABUSE! to me.


At every step you missed/ My right ear scraped a buckle. I mean, if you look at it in an innocent way, the dad's just a bit tipsy and of course naturally, you aren't in complete conscious control of your actions. Obviously you'll be slipping a bit, but is that just automatic abuse? Then if you look at it in a more complex view, the poem could be saying that this made up character is being abused for the mistakes the papa makes. Because of these mistakes, your 'missed steps', 'my right ear scraped a buckle'. This could possibly be saying that this poor character is being whipped.


My mother's countenance/ Could not unfrown itself. When your spouse acts the fool and is acting all tipsy, I don't expect you to be jumping for joy. Obviously you would be a bit annoyed. But at the same time, if abuse is happening in this situation, I know not everyone will speak up against it so this poem could also possibly be saying that the mom stood idly by not stopping it.


In my heart, I truly want to believe this is all play. I'm a true kid at heart. I can't see things in any other way because pain is one thing I don't take too well. Even if it's not my own pain, I feel the weight of that burden. But even though I can be blind at times, I won't be blind to the possibility of abuse. I'll just choose to be ignorant and ignore it.









6 comments:

  1. Hilary this is a great response the first sentence really pulls the reader in!
    I'm glad that instead of using the word Drunk you used "Tipsy" there might be some people reading this who might slightly be offened by that. The part where you talked about the wife was actually pretty informative about showing how you felt that the spouse should feel. Another part i liked was how you quoted the poem. Good Job!

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  2. really good writing Hillary, it was like i had epiphanies at every line that I read, and it sort of helped me understand what I really thought of the poem as well...thanks....great work

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  3. I like your blog post a lot. I had to agree with Ms Galang that the beginning made me want to read more into your response. The rest of your response was just as good as the beginning. They way you explained your confusions and your emotions about the poem was really cool.

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  4. Very clever ending Hilary. I really liked how your ideas flowed and how much you obviously thought about this poem.

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  5. This is such a sad response! Amazing use of real life connections; you really made me connect to the poem. Amazing job!

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  6. My mother's countenance/ Could not unfrown itself. When your spouse acts the fool and is acting all tipsy, I don't expect you to be jumping for joy. Obviously you would be a bit annoyed. But at the same time, if abuse is happening in this situation, I know not everyone will speak up against it so this poem could also possibly be saying that the mom stood idly by not stopping it.
    i don't really think that the mom stood by watching the abuse and didn't do anything. maybe she wanted to but she just COULDN'T. maybe she's afraid of the father. maybe he abuses her too. we will probably never know, but anyway, your response was really good. i liked how you connected it to your self and how you were small and innocent when you were younger just like the little boy.it kind of reminds me of the saying, "ignorance is bliss".

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