Real Life Connection

The poem "My Papa's Waltz" by Theodore Roethke was a poem that really stood out to me. At first like many other poeple who have read the poem I saw this poem as an abusive relationship between a father and son. The image that you get when the speaker paints the picture of whisky lingering in Papa's breath would make many people think that the father has a drinking problem. The battered knuckles of Papa also make it seem as though he is a hard and harsh man. Once you look deeper into the poem though you can see that the speaker is just trying to paint an image of his father that he can hold on to. He is using the smell of whisky as a smell that reminds him of his father. The roughness of the fathers knuckles just shows that he is a really hard working man to support his family. This really reminds me of my own father. He was a really hard working man to do the best for his family. He worked in a factory during the day and when he came home he ran the family farm. His hands were always rough from all the work that his did for us. And for that I appreciate him ever so much.