The Two Interpretations of My Papa's Waltz

The poem “My Papa’s Waltz” can easily be interpreted in two different ways. Before class discussion, I was convinced that “My Papa’s Waltz was a somber poem that expresses a son’s love for his father, despite his father’s alcoholism and abusive ways. I thought that, 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. After discussing “My Papa’s Waltz” in class, I realized if the poem is interpreted literally, it is about a young boy, remembering a night with his father when they danced around the house aggressively. With this analysis, there is no intentional abuse on the father’s part, and no clear evidence of alcoholism. Now, I believe the poem is about that of my second interpretation, but both interpretations are admissible.

If the poem is not read literally, there is a vast amount of evidence that, “My Papa’s Waltz,” is the story a young boy revealing the hardships he has lived through with his alcoholic father, while still possessing a great love for his dad. The boy would then be the narrator of “My Papa’s Waltz” and thus the son of an alcoholic father. If the poem is not read literally, it is easy to focus on the physical abuse, and anger the father possesses, 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 the son is telling his father, that his drinking is a problem, and the boy is worried. In the next line, he says, “But I held on like death: such waltzing was not easy.” Here, thoughts are seemingly 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. This could refer 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. After reading this poem, if it is not interpreted literally, it is evident that 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.

If the poem is interpreted literally, it is clear that the young son is remembering a night when he and his father waltzed around the home. The father is intoxicated, but that does not make him an alcoholic, for if you interpret the poem literally, the poem is one full scene, but if not interpreted literally, each stanza seems to be a different period of time, which makes the first sentence of the poem more significant. The waltzing is still rough, yet not intentional. The father holding the boy by the wrist now shows the father is holding him by the wrist due to the dance. It is not an act of violence at all. Also, when the boy explains that, “With every step you missed/My right ear scrapped a buckle,” it shows that when the father missed a step in the dance, the small boy would scrap his ear on his father’s belt buckle. The last stanza influenced me that the poem is not the grim tale I had one believed, but a happy memory. The last line states, “You beat time on my head/ With a palm caked hard by dirt/Then waltzed me off to bed/Still clinging to your shirt.” Here the father is helping his son keep time with the steps, and the boy is grasping on to his father’s shirt, and while holding on to his dad, they continue to waltz to bed.

I now interpret the poem literally. The father and son are dancing and it seems the young boy remembers his life with his father as joyful and playful. He and his father have a close relationship. And although the father has been drinking and the dance is more threatening, (like when they are dancing in the kitchen and knock pans from the shelves) neither feel as if they are in total danger. They are energized and excited.

Thus, throughout “My Papa’s Waltz,” I view the father as a loving, caring, dad, and not a belligerent drunk. After discussion, I was not left with the unsettled response I began with. I have been persuaded that “My Papa’s Waltz,” is an uplifting story of father and son sharing a precious moment together, whilst waltzing around the house.