English 452 Final

So I know this is kind of a cop-out of a post, but here goes. Here is the poem that we were asked to analyze for my final. Then we had to analyze our interpretation.

Theodore Rothke

My Papa's Waltz

 

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.

My interpretation: (Which I know isn't my best work, but it was a final after all--time crunch. The interpretation actually wasn't the important part of the final)

This poem is about the father's destructive lifestyle of alcoholism, and how it is cyclical. By the end of the poem we realize that the son will become who the father is.
     We learn at the beginning of the poem that even though being with his father was difficult (such waltzing was not easy) because of his Father's alcoholism (The whisky on your breath/Could make a small boy dizzy), nonetheless the boy clings to his father (But I hung on like death) for a sense of identity. In the second stanza the author elaborates that sometimes trying to be with his Father destroyed their physical possessions, and that his mother disapproved of him trying to waltz with his father (perhaps because she knows what destructive ends that lifestyle brings).
     The third and fourth stanzas are when the reader learns about the character of the father. He is portrayed as a man who has suffered, "The hand that held my wrist/Was battered by one knuckle", and worked hard for his family, "A palm caked hard by dirt." This acknowledgement of the father's character shows us that the boy recognizes the difficulties his father has had in his life, how a life of hard labor has affected him, and his good qualities, such as working hard for his family. Also in the third stanza we read "At every step you missed/My right ear scraped a buckle," so we know that when this father makes mistakes, it is his son who pays the price.
     The significance of this "dance" with his father being a waltz is unmistakable. The waltz is a dance where although you feel like you are changing directions, eventually you end up back in the same place you started. It is circular, symbolizing the circular destructive pattern of his father's lifestyle. The inevitable ending of this boy continuing this pattern is shown in the last line "still clinging to your shirt." Even though the boy recognizes the harm that is done by his father's life, the broken home, the worried mother, he still clings to his father as a source of identity.

Other interpretations:
#1
#2 (pdf file)

more controversy about it

It appears that there are generally two readings of the poem; one as a memory of a playful experience, and one of deeper darker themes of abuse. What do you think? What did you think when you first read it?