Papa's Waltz": Hints of Child Abuse or Suggestions of the Pains of a Hard Life?

Theodore Roethke's piece, "My Papa's Waltz," is a perfect example of the different interpretations that can come from a single work of poetry. The phrasing, at times, suggest that there are instances of child abuse, while at the same time, others could claim that it is simply a glimpse into a moment of time that a father spends with his son prior to bed time -- whisky simply being a numbing to the pains of life. Kerry Michael Wood describes it best when he says that, "Roethke would be pleasantly surprised to know that his poem has become a generational litmus test - an almost sure-fire means of determining the age of the poem's readers" (Wood, 1). Members of "Generation X," along with those who can relate to this era, have a tendency to take...
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