....STILL CLINGING TO HIS SHIRT
             The first four lines of Roethke's poem My Papa's Waltz set the scene: "The whiskey on your breath/ Could make a small boy dizzy/ But I hung on like death:/ Such waltzing was not easy." It is apparent that the father has been drinking; and the smell is so strong that the boy could not miss it. I could imagine a small boy trying to look directly at his father without flinching. After reading Roethke's poem My Papa's Waltz my first reaction was that of a young boy's experience of child abuse at the hand of his father.
             The next four lines are as follows: "We romped until the pans/ Slid from the kitchen shelf;/ My mother's countenance/ Could not unfrown itself". Some might say that his mother did not like what she was seeing, but she did nothing to stop her husband from bullying the boy.
             Lines (9-12), in my opinion, surely indicate the possibility of child abuse: "The hand that held my wrist/ Was battered on one knuckle;/ At every step you missed/ My right ear scraped a buckle". The fact that the father's knuckle was scraped gives images of abuse, like he 'd been in a fight. There is also the indication that the boy is being hurt because his ear was scraped by his father's buckle, which could be suggestive of a father
             wildly beating the boy with his belt "accidentally" hitting him with his belt buckle.
             The last four lines also suggest possibilities of child abuse. "You beat time on my head/ With a palm caked hard by dirt,/ Then waltzed me off to bed/ Still clinging to your shirt". I can imagine a man drunk and unaware of how strong he is. It could be symbolic of a man beating a child across the head. So in a sense the word 'beat' shows the possibility of abuse. Which brings me to a question, if he were being abused why would he cling to his father; shouldn't he ...