My Papas Waltz

“My Papa’s Waltz”

Words

In the poem “My Papa’s Waltz” (Roethke 689) Roethke uses high diction. Roethke does not use any contractions, jargon or slang. Roethke uses connotation. You can feel emotion and psychological meaning through the words he uses.

Tone

Roethke use of words really gives a sense of feeling. He says “The hand that held my wrist was battered on one knuckle” (689). You can see and also have a sense of feeling of what it feels like. Roethke also says “At every step you missed my right ear scraped a buckle” (689). You can have a sense of feeling pain on your ear through that. He also says that “You beat time on my head with a palm caked hard by dirt” (689). That shows a sense of feeling and you can imagine what it felt like. The way Roethke puts his words together gives the reader an emotional ride through his poem. It lets you feel and sense everything that the boy felt.

Pattern

Roethke pattern for his poem is step by step. Roethke tells the poem from each step that happened in order. He does from first to last. He tells first how the boy could smell whiskey on his father’s breath and how he tried to hold on like death (689). Then he goes to how the mother is feeling (689). Then he goes to what happened when his father missed a step and what he was held by (689). Lastly, he tells how his father beat time and took him off to bed (689).

Form

Roethke uses words that rhyme with one another. The end word of the first line of each stanza rhymes with the end word on the third line in each stanza. The end word of the second line of each stanza rhymes with the end word on the last line of each stanza. Each stanza has four lines. It is single rhyme. The meter in the first stanza goes 6,7,6,7. The meter in the second stanza goes 6,6,6,6. The meter in the third stanza goes 6,7,6,7. The meter in the last stanza goes 6,7,6,6. Therefore, without the break in line 14 the second half of the poem would match the first half.

Persona

The person that...