My Papa's Waltz Rhetorical Analysis

The tone associated with Theodore Roethke’s “My Papa’s Waltz” is negative because the author emphasizes word choice and how he decides to phrase stanzas. First, Theodore Roethke wrote this poem in first person, most likely meaning that he was writing about an important or momentous moment in his life. Second, “at every step you missed/my right ear scraped a buckle” (Roethke, n.d., ll. 11-12)., can be connotated as a negative tone because belts can be remembered to have been a punishment for younger children, and if the little boy was getting hurt by the buckle and the father didn’t notice, or was too lazy to care, then he sounds like a hard father. Another odd choice of wording would be the fact that the father held the boy by the wrist instead

Show More

Related Documents: My Papa's Waltz Rhetorical Analysis

Botticelli: Readers Response Essay