response to my papa's waltz (final)

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










I believe that this poem suggests that a boy is being abused by his father. Many people say that the boy is Not being beaten by his father, but rather just waltzing with him as the title suggests. But i disagree. I think that the boy purposefully chose to make his poem seem like it could be about an innocent and enjoyable dance with his father. Maybe he is ashamed or afraid of what people will think when he confesses that he is abused physically and perhaps even mentally by his father. Another possibility for why the boy would try to hide his message in the poem could be that he is threatened by his father. he is afraid of how his father will react to him confessing his father's wrongdoings. i think that the boys secret cry for help is showed in these small excerpts from the poem:


"The whiskey on your breath could make a small boy dizzy"


I think that this is evidence that the father isn't TIPSY (as I have heard other people say), because TIPSY is to be slightly intoxicated. and obviously, if his breath makes a small boy dizzy, then he is not slightly intoxicated, because if he was slightly intoxicated then you would be able to detect a hint of whiskey on his breath. but certainly not enough to make anyone dizzy.


"My mother's countenance could not unfrown itself."


I know that many people think that the fact that the mother isn't defending her child, is enough proof to say that the boy isn't being abused. But I disagree. Just because the mother isn't defending her child like a crazy person, doesn't mean that the boy isn't being hurt. I think that it means that the mother is just watching out for herself. I also think that doesn't make her a bad mother.It makes her a very good and smart mother. Also, it kind of emphasizes the level of dangerosity that the father can reach. I mean, how do we know that he doesn't beat her too? If she jumps in to directly save her child from being hurt, then she could be running straight into a trap. The father could get mad, and beat her instead of the boy, and if he injures her badly because he is drunk, then who is going to protect her child from him in the future? Who is to say that something terrible won't happen to her, and if it does, then she will be leaving her son alone to deal with a drunk father. And besides, if she isn't defending him like a crazy person, it could also indicate that the boy is being abused, but not so bad that the mother has to intervene 


"The hand that held my wrist"


There is one thing here that caught my attention and could also prove the fact that the boy is being beaten by his father and not waltzing with him. To waltz, is to dance this dance right? Well then, when you dance with a partner, you are supposed to hold hands. Not wrists. If something (in this case someone) is making you feel pain, and you don't want it to, then you are going to try to get away from the source of it.And for this child, the source is his father. The father may not realize that he is hurting his child because he is drunk. but he is still doing it. If the father doesn't want the boy to run away, then he will not hold his hand because the boy can easily wriggle his small fingers out from his father's grip, but if his father is holding his wrist, then it will be harder for him to escape.


I think that these small excerpts, and the explanations that follow show the message that the boy wants us as his readers to get. He is too shy to admit that his father beats him, so he has decided to make it into a poem that could be read in many different ways. Everyone is different so everyone sees everything in different ways. And I think that these lines support my way f seeing and analyzing this poem.