Understanding Theodore Roethke's My Papa's Waltz
Considering Symbolism and Historical Context
Feb 17, 2009
Contemporary criticism and scholarship maintain that Roethke's poem, despite its rollicking beat, depicts abuse and alcoholism. However, word choice, tone, multivalent symbolic clues, and historical perspective must be considered to gain a more expansive understanding of Roethke's poetic intentions.
Word Choice and Tone
Because tone is defined by word choice, the key to understanding the author’s attitude toward his memory is in the words he has selected to describe it.
Much has been made of Roethke’s choice of the word ‘death’ in the third line of the first quatrain. Why ‘death’ rather than another descriptor? The mere mention of death darkens the mood and appears to portend some future tragedy. Yet, moving beyond the word’s conventional associations with bleak finality, death is also found to be tenacious and ever present.
Ultimately, Roethke could have selected no better word. While other clinging objects may snap, break, or become detached, death can neither be escaped nor shaken off. So, to indicate his appreciation of the attention his father is paying him, the son hangs on as tightly as possible, even though it requires all his strength. Tidy, too, is that ‘death’ completes a perfect rhyme with ‘breath’ in line 1.
The Influence of Roethke's Real-life Father
Poet Edward Byrne in the Valparaiso Poetry Review notes that Roethke’s choice of the word ‘death’ has yet another significance. Since Roethke’s father died when the poet was 14, the use of ‘death’ in this context is “an elegiac tribute.” Roethke keenly felt his father’s absence for the remainder of his life and made him the subject of many poems.
Papa's Buckle, a Symbolic ClueIn stanza three, Roethke makes reference to the waltz causing his right ear to graze his father’s belt buckle, a detail which has been used to advance interpretations asserting that the poem represents abuse. However, the inclusion offers readers a more innocuous detail: it indicates the boy’s age. He is still young, perhaps no more than four or five, an age when lighthearted waltzing--in a way that mimics adults--would be a playful way to engage a child. The father probably does not intend to dominate the boy, but the simple fact of their height disparity and his uncertain footing make the discomfort inevitable.
Hands, another Symbolic Clue
Hands figure prominently in the poem and are an important indication of the father’s reality. We learn about the man not through his facial features, but via the look of his hands, which are referenced in both stanzas three and four. They are battered and caked with dirt. Their appearance is not conclusive evidence that he has beaten anyone, it merely indicates the man’s social class: he is a laborer. This is, ostensibly, a direct reference to Roethke’s own father, who worked in a greenhouse.
Influences on Interpretation
Invariably, the poem’s interpretation is influenced by contemporary attitudes. Once excised from its original historical context, its intended meaning can be eclipsed by period perspectives, like those currently expressed by both students and scholars.
While society is now highly attune to conceptions of inappropriate parenting, Roethke's poem must be considered outside these expectations and placed within the framework of his childhood milieu. Born in 1908, Roethke offers a glimpse of parenting in his era and social situation. At that time, laboring fathers did not retreat to back yards to play catch with sons. Their affection was expressed, for better or worse, as the rolls and swells of their daily struggle permitted.
