Zachary Sharp

Professor Nicholas Young

Literature 221

30 December 2012

Literary Analysis of "My Papa's Waltz"

Many readers may argue that the message in the poem "My Papa's Waltz" is the story of a child is being abused by his alcoholic father. However, that is not the case. Theodore Roethke uses many literary elements to give the reader vibrant descriptions of the father and son's actions and loving relationship that it have led to.

Roethke used the setting in "My Papa's Waltz" to describe what what times were like when the poem was written. Constructed in the 1940's, it is clear that American families were without television, but may have used a radio, which explains the title, "My Papa's Waltz." There is a possibility that a radio was playing when the father and son waltzed around...