Another Revised Response on My Papa's Waltz

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 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.

In the poem, My Papa's Waltz, the narrator is reliving an experience of his past, that includes his father. Some people say that his father is abusing him, and others may say they are just dancing. Both ideas can be proven with lines from the poem. I don't think the father is abusing his son, even though throughout the poem it gives you the impression of that.

In the poem, there are at least three lines that give the impression that the boy is being abused, but if you read it carefully, he actually isn't. When you first read line 3, “but I hung on like death”, it gives you the feeling that the last thing he wants do be doing is dancing with his father. I think that he is clinging on "like death" because he is afraid to fall while enjoying a dance with his father.  Another line that you can misinterpret are lines 11 and 12. Here you may think that he is getting hit because he is not dancing well, but it is actually trying to say that he was very small at that time, so his ear was brushed against his fathers buckle every once in a while. The last line is line 13. Here, people may think that his father is hurting him, but he is actually tapping beats on his head to dance the waltz. 

This poem reminded me of the book Angela's Ashes. Sometimes Frank's father would come home drunk and wake up Frank and his brothers just to make them all promise to die for Ireland. Sleepily, they would all promise to die for Ireland, and if they were lucky, they'd get a penny. This poem reminded me of the book Angela's Ashes because, both fathers did things they believed were harmless. One father danced with his son and the other made them promise to die for Ireland. What I find a coincidence is that both sons ended up writing about the experience. Theodore Roethke wrote My Papa's Waltz, and Frank McCourt wrote his memoir, Angela's Ashes.

Overall, I think the poem was written to relive a memorable experience, rather than a bad one. The narrator's father did not mean any harm. In fact, I think it was all meant to symbolize love.  

Revised Response on My Papa's Waltz

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 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.

In the poem, My Papa's Waltz, the narrator is reliving an experience of his past, that includes his father. Some people say that his father is abusing him, and others say they are just dancing. Both ideas can be proven with lines from the poem. I don't think the father is abusing his son, even though throughout the poem it gives you the impression of that.

In the poem, there are at least three lines that give the impression that the boy is being abused, but if you read it carefully, he actually isn't. When you first read line 3, “but I hung on like death”, it gives you the feeling that the last thing he wants do be doing is dancing with his father. I think that he is clinging on "like death" because he is afraid to fall while enjoying a dance with his father. Another line that you can misinterpret are lines 11 and 12. Here you may think that he is getting hit because he is not dancing well. It is actually trying to say that he was very small so his ear was brushing against his fathers buckle every once in a while. The last line is line 13. Here, people may think that his father is hurting him, but he is actually tapping beats on his head to dance the waltz. 

This poem reminded me of the book Angela's Ashes. Sometimes Frank's father would come home drunk and wake up Frank and his brothers just to make them all promise to die for Ireland. Sleepily, they would all promise to die for Ireland, and if they were lucky, they'd get a penny.  

Overall, I think the poem was written to relive a memorable experience, rather than a bad one. The narrator's father did not mean any harm. In fact, I think it was all meant to symbolize love.  

Reading Response on Independent Reading Book

I have currently finished rereading the book Memoirs of a Geisha, written by Arthur Golden. This book has become one of my favorite books. It has such an interesting conflict, many themes, characters you can connect to, and is very interesting. To tell you the truth, I didn't even want to read it in the first place. When I first read it, all I wanted to do was close the book and put it back on the book shelf. I was so close to actually putting it back, but decided to give it a chance.


The book is about a girl named Chiyo, who at first lived and grew up in the poor fishing village of Yoroido. She was taken, along with her sister, to an okiya in kyoto. Chiyo stayed at the okiya for future geisha training, but her sister was rejected and became a prostitute. Chiyo was to be a maid for Mother and Auntie, two older women who ran the okiya, before actually preparing to be a geisha. Being a maid was just one of the obstacles Chiyo had to overcome to become the geisha she dreamed to be. 


While reading this book, it was frustrating when Chiyo made stupid mistakes. One of these mistakes was deciding to run away. Mother and Auntie specifically told Chiyo that by running away she would kiss goodbye the fact that she would one day become a geisha. Although knowing what she would risk, Chiyo made plans with her sister to run away. At the end, not only did Chiyo get caught, but she also broke her arm while falling off the roof. The medical cost, and the fact that she tried to run away made the debts that she owed the Okiya skyrocket.


At the end, Chiyo managed to become a successful geisha.(No thanks to Auntie, Mother, and Hatsumomo, but to Mameha.) I was really glad when her life finally became perfect. Her bad luck finally seemed to run out, and she was at peace.