A Loving Struggle in Theodore Roethke's "My Papa's Waltz" After an initial reading of Roethke's "My Papa's Waltz, one may assume that this is a story of a terrified young boy unable to defend himself against his father's physical abuse, while another reader may view this scene as a depiction of a playful game between father and son. While the poem may be understood by accepting either of these explanations in their simplest form, Roethke …showed first 75 words of 985 total…

…showed last 75 words of 985 total…proof of Roethke's intention of portraying the father as a man who has a good heart, but has not perfected his delivery of fatherly love to his young son. Works Cited McKenna, John J. "Roethke's Revisions and the Tone of 'My Papa's Waltz'." Quarterly Journal of Short Articles, Notes, and Reviews 11:2 (1998): 34-38. Roethke, Theodore. "My Papa's Waltz." Literature: An Introduction to Reading and Writing. 7th ed. Ed. Leah Jewell. Upper Saddle Ridge: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2004. 784.