Unconditional Love

Unconditional Love With jolting word choice and the effective application of imagery, the poem My Papa’s Waltz, written in 1948 by Theodore Roethke (1908 – 1963), presents the speaker as a child who is trapped in a world tragically affected by alcoholism and physical abuse yet who relentlessly attempts to attain love and affection from his drunken and violent father. The whimsical lyrics prompt the reader to recognize that although this poem depicts the essence of a child, the implication of a life of patterned torture is in deep contrast to the reality of a carefree childhood.
My Papa’s Waltz is written in quatrain form purposely echoing the sing song sound of idyllic childhood rhymes to contrast the meaning of the poem which illustrates a childhood experience with an alcoholic and abusive father who, despite the ongoing pain inflicted, is still loved unconditionally by his son. The speaker relates this experience in his childhood with his drunken father in an almost affectionate tone, yet with the distain of the alcoholism and violence soundly ringing through.
He states, “The whiskey on your breath, Could make a small boy dizzy; But I hung on like death: Such waltzing was not easy,” (lines 1-4). The speaker’s tone reveals that although his father drinks to the point of his breath being intoxicating and that the situation is confusing to the lad, he still “hung on like death,” grappling with his hope that if he continued “the waltz” – the relationship with his father – that he would retain his father’s love.

In the last line of the stanza, the speaker’s resolute determination of continuing with the difficult waltz lends credence to the optimism of his youth which is evident in his perseverance to experience the father-son relationship. The word choices throughout the poem, such as “death,” “battered,” “scraped,” and “beat” imply that the speaker’s childhood is certainly not a functional one and, moreover, is filled daily with the cruel interactions of his hardened father.
The speaker reflects, “We romped until the pans, Slid from the kitchen shelf; My mother’s countenance, Could not unfrown itself,” (5-8). This passage suggests through detailed imagery that although this young boy is being abused by his father, with household items being knocked from their places with the shaking of the violence, his mother shamefully remains a silent but disapproving bystander as she witnesses her child’s horrendous beatings.
The brutal scene continues to unfold as “The hand that held my wrist, Was battered on one knuckle; At every step you missed, My right ear scraped a buckle,” (9 –12). In a vivid display of terrifying progression, the father grasps the boy’s wrist with his hand in an attempt to land yet another steady blow, battering his knuckles even more. When his drunken state causes him to stagger, the boy’s ear scrapes against his belt buckle, instead.
As the father’s tension and fury explodes from the failed strike, the speaker recounts that his father “beats time on my head… then waltzed me off to bed,” creating a vision of a frenzied rage as he is repeatedly hit until he is thrown violently into his room at the end of the beating (13, 15). Throughout this instance of abuse it is quite clear that this child’s love for his father is steadfast and unwavering. Regardless of the incessant beating, the last line of the poem is the boy’s emphatic plea for love and acceptance as he was “still clinging to (his) shirt,” (16).
While he notes his father’s “palm caked hard with dirt,” the excusing tone suggests that he recognizes the hard life his father lives and thus pardons his cruelty. As is often the case with an abused person, no matter the depths of the abuse that is endured, a longing and a resilient hope for a functional, loving and nurturing relationship with one’s parent continues, as is displayed in My Papa’s Waltz. Works Cited Roethke, Theodore. My Papa’s Waltz. Literature for Composition, 8th ed. Eds. Sylvan Barnet, William Burto, William E. Cain. New York: Pearson Longman, 2008. 807.