August 17, 2017

Poets’ Roundtable

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My Papa’s Waltz

BY THEODORE ROETHKE

The whiskey on your breath   

Could make a small boy dizzy;   

But I hung on like death:   

Such waltzing was not easy. 

We romped until the pans   

Slid from the kitchen shelf;   

My mother’s countenance   

Could not unfrown itself. 

The hand that held my wrist   

Was battered on one knuckle;   

At every step you missed 

My right ear scraped a buckle. 

You beat time on my head   

With a palm caked hard by dirt,   

Then waltzed me off to bed   

Still clinging to your shirt.

Theodore Roethke, "My Papa's Waltz" from Collected Poems of Theodore Roethke.  Copyright 1942 by Heast Magazines, Inc.  Used by permission of Doubleday, an imprint of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC. All rights reserved.

Source: The Collected Poems of Theodore Roethke (1961)

I include this as one of my favorite teachable poems. What is it about? I get a lot of people who think it is a somewhat rough but still touching poem, a memory of the father. Others find it to be about overt abuse. I mention it in light of discussions we had last week about what was and was not consciously put into Trish's poem. Despite Roethke's talent he was probably not fully aware of all the nuances and outright overt meanings in this  poem. Any comments? Consider too that when Rotheke first wrote the poem, it was of a girl dancing with her father. Why did he change it in revision?

For a remarkable look at the evolution of the poem, follow this link that details the author's revisions.
http://www.mrbauld.com/exrthkwtz.html. As you read this consider how carefully you choose your own words.

The Current Assignment

The Next Assignment

The next assignment is to write a poem to your father. Pick a substitute of equal importance if you wish.

The Next Meeting

The next meeting will be on Thursday, September 7, 2017

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