“My Papa’s Waltz” By Theodore Roethke

In this poem the author is describing his father’s every move and action in detail because his father is drunk. The author is explains how he could smell the distinct scent of whiskey on his father’s breath, and how the smell was making him dizzy. Also he tells you that even though the smell was nauseating he still held on as his father continued staggering around. Then as they stagger around they slowly make their way into the kitchen were they bump into pots and pans knocking them off the walls. Mean while his mother expression was a continuing frown because she was worried. The author then begins to describe the father’s hands, how they were battered on one knuckle. Then he tells the readers that the father hits him upside his head and sends to him to bed as he staggers off.

I believe the poem is the personal experience of the author because in the first stanza he says that the smell of whiskey from the father’s breath could have made a young boy dizzy. Also I think the kid is sort of use to his father being drunk this way because typically when people see drunk people especially someone significant in their lives they usually don’t try to approach them but in stead retreat to somewhere they feel is safer. This though I believe is sort of a usual routine they go through, and though the mother was a bit upset that the son was sort of hanging on the father’s back I guess she figured she knows that him well enough in this state that he wouldn’t do anything to harm them. Also it seems as though that the father is a worker the way that the son describes his hand because he tells you the father’s knuckle is battered and that the palm of his hand is caked with dirt. I think this poem is basically talking about a young boy’s memories of his father drinking. Also he might have did this because he might have had the stress of work on his shoulders.