My Papa's Waltz

My Papa’s Waltz

“My Papa’s Walt” is a somber poem that expresses a son’s love for his father, despite his father’s alcoholism and abusive ways. The title is quite ironic, because waltz gives readers the impression that the poem is uplifting, but in reality, the poem mainly expresses a sons concern. Although the poem states playful interactions between the father and son, the majority of the poem focuses on the father’s drunken aggression toward the boy.

The narrator of “My Papa’s Waltz” is the son of an alcoholic father. This is evident through the tough exterior the boy puts on and the rough-housing manner in which father and son interact. When I first read the poem, I did not realize the love the son possesses for his father. Instead, I focused on the physical abuse, and anger that I saw in the father, which was directed toward the boy. In the first line of the poem, the son is speaking to his dad and says, “The whiskey on your breath could make a small boy dizzy.” Here I feel the son is trying to explain to his father, that his drinking is a problem, and the boy is worried. These descriptive first lines, place the reader in the situation of the young boy breathing in the whiskey scent. The reader can place themselves in the young boy’s situation, and can picture being compelled back, once the father begins to speak, due to the surprise of the strong odor from his breath. In the next line, he says, “But I held on like death: such waltzing was not easy.” Here my thoughts are directed toward abuse. The son is telling his father, that he struggled to survive (mentally and physically) in the home, but did everything he could to try and survive and rise above the problem. The pain that comes through in this sentence is subtle, yet intense. In the next stanza, the tone begins to change. The violent acts, change to fun, rough housing. The son expresses how his father and he physically fooled around in the kitchen. There is a sense of happiness and joy here. But this feeling of joy does not last long, for the tone changes again in stanza three when the son returns to speaking of his father’s beatings. Beatings are reasonably inferred because the son says that the father held his wrist. The grabbing of a wrist suggests harsher interaction. If the father was not trying to harm the boy, it would be more logical that he would hold his hand, not his wrist. In this stanza, the boy also suggests that his father seemed to brush him with a buckle. I believe this refers to a time when the father was drunk, and went to strike his son using a belt, missing his backside completely, and instead, hit his ear. The negative tone continues in stanza four when the son says, “You beat time on my head with a palm caked hard by dirt.” But in the second half of the sentence the mood and tone change with, “Then you waltzed me off to bed still clinging to your shirt.” The stanza starts off with a description of the torture the boy endured, but ends with the boy confessing love for his father, despite his faults. Even though the son has been beat around by his dad, he still loves him and has a desire to be loved in return. Thus, even after a violent battle, the son remains loyal to his father, and clings to him, in search of love and compassion.

In my opinion, this poem expresses all the negative things the son wishes to tell his father, but it also expresses the hope and love the boy carries for his dad. I do feel that overall the son has suffered a very difficult life, but in the end, he seems to hide those memories, and embraces the positive moments between he and his father.

While reading descriptions of the poem, I read that “My Papa’s Waltz” is a comedy. No matter how many times I read this, or how many times I search for irony, I am unable to obtain it. I do not see this poem as funny at all, even if that was the author’s intention. I feel that this poem is about a young boy reaching out to his father in desperation. Throughout “My Papa’s Waltz,” I view the father as dirty, drunk, and belligerent, and I see the son yearning for affection from his father. I felt that the poem was very honest, and that is what captured my attention, and provoked my unsettled response toward the poem.

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