English 1B
Seminar 8 - My Papa's Waltz

Read the poem below by Theodore Roethke, My Papa's Waltz . Answer each question in a brief paragraph (3-5 sentences).  Use quotes from the poem to illustrate your idea. 

• Who is the speaker of the poem?
• What do you think is going on in this poem?
• How does the speaker portray the father? How do you think the speaker of the poem feels about the father?
• What words do you find in this poem that could be interpreted in more than one way? How does the meaning of the poem change with the different interpretations of specific words?
  

  My Papa's Waltz
  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