A Bittersweet Memory

. . .
At the first impression, the audience has a negative vibe of the relationship because alcohol is present in the situation. In this relationship, it shows many aspects of an American family where the drunken father and his young son end up in a dance at night, specifically a waltz. At the first impression, the poem seems to illustrate the battle between the father and his young son but in reality, it is more of a son’s struggle to keep his father standing with him and dancing around the house. By appearing in the scene, it does not seem that this is a domestic problem because if the father beat his son, the mother would protect her own child, and I assume that any mother in this world would do the same thing.

The speaker of the poem makes it evident in the first two lines of the first stanza, “The whiskey on your breath/Could make a small boy dizzy;” By introducing his father’s breath caused by alcohol, it gives the audience a negative impression toward his reluctant father—a misconception of believing anything the speaker states.

The third stanza begins to describe more of the physical contact where certain parts of the son’s body are bruised by the interaction of dancing. The speaker of the poem revisits a moment in the memories of a relationship with his father. ” Affectionately and passionately, the speaker clings to his father although his father’s breath is not very unpleasant. Based on the descriptions, the kitchen scene seems a little intense by the way the speaker says. The speaker describes the experience of waltzing with his father is not “easy” in which it demonstrates an unsettling feeling of battling with his father rather than dancing. Due to his father’s drinking problem, the speaker of this poem expresses his feelings about his father’s unconsciousness in the way they dance, whether or not it is really a waltz. In other words, the mother’s point of view reveals to the audience the level of intensity under any circumstances. Looking back at his father, the poem shows a negative vibe at first because the son is somewhat hurt by his father’s loss of consciousness in which it gives an assumption of abusiveness. The speaker of the poem states, “You beat time on my head/With a palm caked hard by dirt,/Then waltzed me off to bed/Still clinging to your shirt,” feeling a little nostalgic because he clings to his father’s shirt when his father carries him to bed—a place in time, still belonging to them, stays preserved in the speaker’s mind, and in the memories, he’ll find solace. At the first impression, the father seems to be an abusive person due to the speaker’s descriptions.

Common topics in this essay:
Son Poems, Theodore Roethke, Papas Waltz, Harvard University, Saginaw Michigan, father son, drunken father, Words Wind, drunken father son, bittersweet memory, speaker poem, Prize Waking, fathers drinking, physical contact, papas waltz, speaker father, University Michigan, palm caked hard, palm caked, speaker father mutual, theodore roethke,

Approximate Word count = 1446
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)

Already a member? Click here