Part one of term paper
Throughout the poem, “My Papa’s Waltz” by Theodore Roethke, many techniques are used to show that there are furious conflicts between a father and his son. Roethke uses the word waltz in the title to relate to the beating of the son. I believe that the poem is altogether a negative poem, as described by the words and phrases the auth ...

Part two of term paper
... The beating of the little boy adds to the negativity of the depressing and lonely poem. Furthermore, the fact that the father is drunk continues to show throughout the poem. While there are many negative ideas in the poem, the next is when Roethke states, “At every step you missed / My right ear scraped a buckle” (11-12). This in fact shows that the little boy is being drug around by the drunken father. In this particular instance the boy is being hauled around, but the author compares it ...