In the poem, My Papa's Waltz, Theodore reminisces about his youth of tangled emotions of fear and unconditional love. towards his father besides the imperfections his father has. This poet has showed the emotions of fear and love through word choice, imagery and metaphors.
             Theodore's word choice highlights the mixed emotions he feels towards his father. Through the combination of the words "death" (l. 3) and "waltzing" (l. 4) in the first quatrain, poet describes a serious but amusing atmosphere around him and his father. The image of a waltz depicts the requirement of two individuals to shows the togetherness of the pair. Although, the poet is close to his father, he also expresses fear. The poet shows this fear through the use of words as "battered" (l .10) and "scraped" (l. 12).
             The poet has used imagery to explain the amusing moments between the son and his father together. However, parts of this poem show the fear the son has for his father. "We romped until the pans slid from the kitchen shelf" (ll. 5-6) describes that they are having fun as they romped around the house even though they are being wreck less. The poet describes the caring nature of his father for his son when he said, "The hand that held my wrist" (l. 9). The holding hand symbolizes close relationship that they had. This contrasts with the beginning of the poems first lines; "[t]he wiskey on your breath could make a small boy dizzy" (ll. 1-2). This gives an impression of father being drunk who has the ability to hurt the child. This ingrains the fear into the child.
             Theodore uses metaphors in this poem to describe the relationship with his father. The metaphor, "[b]ut I hung on like death" (1.3), shows his dependency on his father and his need to hang on to him. The poet also uses the metaphor, "[s]till clinging to your shirt"(l.16) to again emphasize the re...