An admittedly autobiographical poet, Michigan-born Theodore Roethke draws much of his influence for his subjects from everyday life. Many of his poems deal with his own introspection and his quest to find himself through verse. Roethke is a visceral poet whose evocative verse reflects real-life struggles and questions of faith, personal identity, and the relationship between the individual and family. One of his most famous poems, “My Papa's Waltz,” deals with these themes. A tribute of sorts to his late father, a German-born immigrant, "My Papa's Waltz" tells the story of a young boy's conceptions of his larger-than-life father, who sometimes arrives late at night after a long day work and a trip to the local bar. Roethke makes the reader feel the effects of the speaker's sometimes contradictory feelings towards his father, that is, admiration, fear, love and nostalgia all at once. . The poem evokes the singular relationship between father and son and captures the interpersonal dynamics between the two. The speaker's memories come from childhood but are recounted later in life, giving the poem a melancholy and nostalgic outlook. In “My Papa's Waltz,” Roethke uses poetic devices, such as regular meter and rhyme, vivid imagery and diction, to imitate the kind of metaphorical dance the boy has with his father – a relationship based on feelings ambiguities of the boy. both admiration and apprehension. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay Organized into four stanzas of four lines each, “My Father’s Waltz” reads like a dance. The verses alternate between six and seven stressed and unstressed iambic syllables. This back-and-forth rhythm gives the verse a swaying feel, imitating a kind of awkward dance: The whiskey on your breath could make a little boy dizzy; But I held on like death: Such a waltz was not easy. (Roethke, lines 1-4) One can certainly feel this swaying sensation when reading the lines aloud, where the repetitive pattern of the accented and unstressed program comes to life. Roethke also uses a regular alternate rhyme system (ABAB, CDCD…), which also helps make the lines read like a dance. In the passage above, Roethke rhymes the final word of all other sentences, i.e. "breath" associated with "dead" and "dizzy" associated with "easy." The whole poem follows this pattern, and the effect is very much like an awkward waltz. This poetic rhyming device enhances the reader's impressions of the poem and reinforces the empathetic understanding the reader gains for the boy, who is danced around the kitchen by his drunken father. This empathy tends to have a confusing effect on the reader, who feels the same conflicting emotions—humor, admiration, and an unsettling undercurrent of fear—that the speaker himself probably felt in this situation. The poem's imagery also contributes to this ambivalence. and a destabilizing effect. There is something quite disturbing about the kitchen scenario. The lines “whiskey on your breath” (line 1), “beat on a knuckle” (10), and “you beat time on my head” (13) all make the reader feel a sense of danger for the child in this situation. . At the same time, the poem draws the line between propriety and impropriety, so it is difficult to understand whether or not this is a scene of comic bonding between father and son, or a case of pure and simple abuse. The fact that Roethke is able to make the reader feel these.