American Literature / Unit 14 AML 1337 short lesson, about 20 seconds
Theodore Roethke and "My Papa's Waltz"
Captions available
The idea
Roethke's short poem has a boy waltzed round a kitchen by a father smelling of whiskey, with pans falling and a hand battered on one knuckle, clinging to his shirt as he is waltzed off to bed. Readers divide over whether the scene is affectionate or frightening.
In practice
A kitchen waltz, remembered.
Where people slip
The poem's tone is genuinely contested.
Your place on the trail
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