The Real Meaning of My Father's Waltz by Theodore RoethkePoetry is designed to express the feelings, thoughts, and emotions of the poet. The reader can interpret the poem as they wish. Critics are undecided about the theme of Theodore Roethke's "My Daddy's Waltz." Some people believe the poem is about a happy exchange between a father and son. The most compelling interpretation is that it contains a hidden message of parental abuse. A careful analysis of the key words and each individual stanza supports this theory of child abuse by a violent and drunken father. The key word in the poem is frolic. Roethke states that "we wandered until the pots slid off the kitchen shelf" (5-6). The word is usually associated with a happy, noisy, energetic running or dancing. A second definition is a brutal and lively game. Alcohol would cause a person to act so harshly. In athletics, a battle is an easy victory over an easy opponent. This means that one side is clearly superior and beats the competition with fury and ease. The father can be seen as a dominant and overwhelming force to a small child. The youngest son couldn't fight against his older father, especially with the added influence of alcohol. A closer reading of the poem will confirm that the meaning of the poem is to illustrate parental abuse. The first stanza sets the scene with clear images. The father appears to be very drunk because the son can smell “the whiskey on your breath” (1). The reader knows that the alcohol consumption is excessive because it almost makes the boy dizzy. Clearly, the father is in a heavenly drunken state because someone else is feeling the effects of his drinking. Critics will say that the son enjoyed...... middle of paper...... it's a happy moment between a father and his child. After careful reading, this interpretation is not valid. In 1948, actions like this were perhaps a part of life. Perhaps this is why Roethke wrote the poem this way, because the event probably happened in many homes and people could relate to it then. Through the vivid images, the reader can feel the boy's pain and fear towards his father. In this case, the waltz is not a moment of complicity between a father and his son. People would now identify with the son and develop hatred towards the father because of the mental and physical toll it could have on a child. The father does his dance by “waltzing” all over his son. Works Cited Roethke, Theodore. “My Daddy’s Waltz.” Discovery of literature: stories, poems, plays. Ed. Hans P. Guth and Gabriel L. Rico. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 1997, 536.