My Papa's Waltz
My papa's waltz, you would think, would be a song. On the contrary, My Papa's Waltz is a poem written by Theodore Roethke. If you visit: http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/18045, you will be able to hear the literary piece. As a child, born in Saginaw, Michigan, he spent much of his time in the greenhouse his father and uncle owned. If you really put some thought into this poem, you will see its complexity. Go to: http://www.gonemild.com/2009/06/sunday-poetry-my-papas-waltz-by.html, for a well written explanation of My Papa's Waltz.
Posted by Annie on 9/4/2009
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Epidermal Macabre; The Geranium; Journey into the Interior; In a Dark Time; The Waking; I Knew a Woman; The Reckoning; Night Journey; My Papa's Waltz; Elegy for Jane; The Far Field;
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In the title, "My Papa's Waltz," it struck me that the word "My" is significant. It seems to speak to the boy wanting to claim this person as his father, in an affectionate way -- and I further take that to mean the content of the poem may be a cherished, happy memory.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR ... My Father on His Shield by Walt McDonald ... My Father's Hat by Mark Irwin...
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The alcohol breath, the dirty hands, the clumsy romping, and beating time on the boy’s head are all just innocent challenging features that comprise the metaphor of the waltz, that so impressed the boy that as an adult he dramatizes the event so we can enjoy his challenging dance along with him and his family.
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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.
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"Questions of Abuse in "My Papa’s Waltz" ... Others who misread "beat time on my head" as indicative of physical abuse, again, are not finishing the lines before ... Roethke, Theodore. "My Papa’s Waltz." The Norton Introduction to Literature. 6th ed. Ed. Carl E. Bain, et al. New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 1995. 769.
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Rarely has this set of expectations surprised me as much, however, as it did in a recent discussion I had with students about Theodore Roethke's poem "My Papa's Waltz."
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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. "My Papa's Waltz"
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EDSITEment, the best of the humanities on the web ... Not only will this lesson enable students to analyze "Those Winter Sundays" and "My Papa's Waltz" in an in-depth way, it will provide them with a deeper understanding of certain poetic devices and the intricate relationship between a poem’s content and its form.
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My Papa's Waltz - by Theodore Roethke .. 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 moth ... Comments about this poem (My Papa's Waltz by Theodore Roethke )
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