My Papa's Waltz
In talking about word selection in poetry, I thought this was a wonderful poem in it's word choice because it evokes more than just cathartic emotion, it captures a feeling. If that sound pretentious, please just stick around a little longer and I'll try to explain myself.
Let's look at the first stanza:
"The whiskey on you breath
Could make a small boy dizzy;
But I hung on like death:
Such waltzing was not easy."
Roethke really captures a feeling of looseness and a sense of being drunk incredibly well. You get a sense of the father being tipsy enough, but still slightly alert. It also creates an idyllic world to live in filled with dancing and it sounds fun.
There is also a distinct shift in tone, at least for me, in the last stanza:
"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 think this is the reality of the world creeping in, the world is still fun and carefree but there is a reminder of the world outside hard and dirty. We also see this in the third stanza with, "the hand that held my wrist/ was battered on one knuckle..." But, at least, in this moment it does not matter and all is well.
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