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"My Papa's Waltz"
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1948
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ABAB
rhyme = not perfect
hint to drunken dancing
4 stanzas (quatrains)
iambic trimeter (3/4 time, waltz time)
beat = not perfect
hint to drunken dancing
persona = son
(age determined by the setting)
young boy
simple words
poem = eulogy to his dead father
“death” in stanza #1
audience
addressed to his father
·
boys & fathers:
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rough-housing, rowdiness
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wait up until daddy gets home
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father = superman, hero, can do no wrong, idolize
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WWE, WWF, rasslin’, boxing
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doing physical things cannot do with mother
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male bonding
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no matter the danger
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the giggled laughter of a happy child
TONE:
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no child abuse
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this = a happy memory
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despite the booze, danger, mess
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IF this were written by the mother
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IF
this were written by an angry child
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"My Papa's Waltz"
GENDER ROLES:
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mother =
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father =
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bread-winner
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manual laborer, worked w/hands
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clown, play
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sexist??
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no
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division of labor
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men worked, women kept house
IMAGERY:
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o
death à
eulogy
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o
sound: waltzing, dancing (crashing)
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o
smell, tactile: hands - scraped, caked w/dirt
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o
tactile: scrape from belt buckle
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tactile, sound: beating time on his head
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EARTHY: smells/feels, of the earth, manual
labor à
death
SYMBOLISM:
o
waltzing, dancing
à fun; drunkenness
o
waltz à
usually gracefulness, elegance, rich BUT here = lack of all 3:
drunk, clumsy, working class
o
hands: scraped, caked w/dirt
à work
§
or drunken fight
§
or abuse
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scrape from buckle
à beatings,
discipline
SIMILES:
o
“But I hung on like death” |
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