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.
             The analysis of "My Papa's Waltz" is full of visual images and images that speak
             strongly to other senses. One can almost feel the small boy's sickening fear as the father
             grabs him and swings him in the air. The boy smells the whiskey on his father's
             breath as the boy wonders what his papa is going to do next. However, when papa starts
             to waltz with him the dancing makes him dizzy from being swung around by such a large
             man. He has to cling papa's shirt to keep from falling. The small boy doesn't know
             whether to feel a sickening fear or a joyful dizziness. They are romping so hard that the
             pans start to fall from the kitchen shelf. With all the romping and pans falling it has to be
             One can see a father coming home after a long hard-working day just in time for his son's
             bedtime. The father doesn't take time to clean-up as emphasized by &qu
             ...