Roethkes Use of Tone Essay - 1316 Words

Roethkes Use of Tone Childhood experiences seem to be the ones that are recollected most vividly throughout a persons life. Almost everyone can remember some aspect of his or her childhood experiences, pleasant and unpleasant alike. Theodore Roethkes poem My Papas Waltz suggests even further that this concept could be true. The dance described in this poem illustrates an interaction between father and child that contains more than the expected joyous, loving attitude between the two characters. Roethkes tone in this work exhibits the blended, yet powerful emotions that he, as a grown man, feels when looking back on this childhood experience. The author somewhat implicates feelings of resentment fused with a loving†¦show more content†¦This stanza also provides the reader with the feeling of how aggressive this dance may be. Roethke is apparently referring to his fathers belt buckle in the last line of the third stanza. During an aggressive act such as this, a small child would experience pain fr om such a mans belt buckle scraping across his ear in this fashion, yet the child refrains from any type of resistance. Perhaps this is caused by the childs fear that his father will become angry, so the child simply endures the pain and tries to enjoy the moment, for he may also feel love and attention that he may not receive regularly from his father. Bridges 3 John J. McKenna offers us further suggestions about the feelings suggested in this poem. In McKennas article, two of the holograph manuscripts to My Papas Waltz are discussed. McKenna implies that the changes made between these manuscripts are further evidence that this poem shows mixed emotions through the tone that Roethke utilizes. These holograph manuscripts are labeled MS-A and MS-B at the University of Washington where they are contained in the archives. The first of these changes discussed in McKennas article is the gender of the child in the poem. He discusses how Roethke seemed to argue with himself about what the sex of the child should be, but finally chooses male for a few different reasons. It seems plausible that he did recognize the rough-house nature ofShow MoreRelatedCommentary on the Bat by Roethke816 Words   |  4 PagesAliona Fezoua My Expert Commentary ‘The Bat’ – Theodore Roethke: By day the bat is cousin to the mouse. He likes the attic of an aging house. His fingers make a hat about his head. His pulse beat is so slow we think him dead. He loops in crazy figures half the night Among the trees that face the corner light. But when he brushes up against a screen, We are afraid of what our eyes have seen: For something is amiss or out of place When mice with wings can wear a human face. Read MoreTheodore Roethke’s My Papa’s Waltz and Robert Hayden’s Those Winter Sundays1722 Words   |  7 Pagespoems because they use tone, imagery, and sounds and rhythms to create tension between the negative aspects of abuse and the boys own love and understanding for their father. Roethke’s and Hayden’s poems use tone in the same way to show that both children ultimately love their fathers regardless of the abuse he commits. The young boy in My Papa’s Waltz is clearly very fond of his father even though his Papa abuses him. It is through the tone the young boy uses that Roethke shows how much he lovesRead MoreAnalysis Of My Papas Waltz By Theodore Roethke1059 Words   |  5 Pagesdiction of the poem clearly supports the interpretation that Roethke writes â€Å"My Papa’s Waltz† reflecting on his relationship with his father. A relationship in which, notably, causes harm to the author. However, through all the nights Roethke spent in pain and in horror, his love for his father still exists. While many people believe that the author tells a lovely story of a fond memory with his father, it is not possible that the use of negative imagery and negative diction does not play a roleRead MoreRoethkes Smart Balance of Joy, Fear and T ension in His Poem My Papa’s Waltz705 Words   |  3 Pagesbecomes abusive and aggressive because of drug or alcohol related problems. My Papa’s waltz is a poem that tells the story of a young boy dealing with an abusive father and a broken home. Despite the initial light atmosphere of the poem Theodore Roethke uses strong and powerful language to convey an underlined meaning to their dance. My Papas Waltz is a poem of fear, all the more horrible because the boy is terrified and hurt by his father, even in play, yet he clings and hangs to him showing howRead More Childhood Memories in My Papas Waltz by Theodore Roethke and Piano by D.H. Lawrence613 Words   |  3 PagesChildhood Memories in My Papas Waltz by Theodore Roethke and Piano by D.H. Lawrence My Papas Waltz by Theodore Roethke and Piano by D.H. Lawrence are two poems in which grown men recall memories of their childhood. My Papas Waltz has a quietly sad, almost resigned tone as Roethke relives his nightly dances with his father as a young boy. Lawrences Piano is somewhat dreamy as a man is taken back by a song to his childhood. While both are presented to us through similar personasRead MoreAnalysis Of My Fathers Song818 Words   |  4 PagesThe poems â€Å"My Father’s Song† by Simon J. Ortiz and â€Å"My Papa’s Waltz† by Theodore Roethke, these two poems express uniqueness and similarities. In the poem â€Å"My Papa’s Waltz† a young child describes his time spent with his father. In the poem â€Å"My Father’s Song† a grown man remembers the previous memories of time spent with his father, when he was a child. These two poems coincide through tone, word choice, and figurative language to show the relationship bet ween a father and son. The boy portraysRead MoreMy Papa s Waltz By Theodore Roethke844 Words   |  4 Pagesâ€Å"My Papa’s Waltz† by Theodore Roethke, and â€Å"Those Winter Sundays† by Robert Hayden are the poems that talk about the relation between son and father. Both speakers in the poem are grown men and reflect memories of the day they spend with their father when they were in childhood. About the poem â€Å"My Papa’s Waltz,† Baird states that â€Å"Theodore Roethke imaginatively re-creates a childhood encounter with his father, but also begins to attempt to understand the meaning of the relationship between them†(Read MoreThe Child Father Relationships Of Daddy And My Papa s Waltz1402 Words   |  6 Pageshis/her friends and lovers. A child will watch their parents and use them as role models and in turn project what the child has learned into all of the relationship that he child will have. The way a parent interacts with his/her child has a huge impact on the child’s social and emotional development. Such cases of parent and child relationships are presented in Theodore Roethke’s â€Å"My Papa’s Waltz† and Sylvia Plath’s â€Å"Daddy†. While Roethke and Plath both write about a dynamic between a child-father relationshipRead Moreâ€Å"My Papa’s Waltz†1568 Words   |  7 Pagesmore likely to be about the enjoyable time between the father and the son and I would explain this by discussing on the word choice, tone and rhythm of the poem. Before analyzing, the first thing to look at is the background of the poet, Theodore Roethke. Roethke’s father died of cancer when he was fifteen (Wikipedia). It is then assumable that the waltz of Roethke and his father is one of the few memories involving his father as he passed away so early. Therefore, it is probably that the poemRead MoreComparing and Contrasting quot;My Papas Waltzquot; and quot;Pianoquot;699 Words   |  3 PagesIn comparing and contrasting the poems, My Papas Waltz by Theodore Roethke and Piano by D. H. Lawrence, the reader could also compare and contrast the childhood lives of the poets themselves. Roethkes father, Otto Roethke, was a drunk and a figure of terror to his son (Seager 26). His mother was an angry woman and Theodore was a desperate child consistently in the middle of his parents opposition (Seager 28). D.H. Lawrences father was a drunk, almost illiterate miner (Squires and Talbot 34)