“My Papa’s Waltz” features a first-person speaker who recalls an event from his childhood that showcases the tension that existed between him and his father. The speaker recounts this event in the past tense, so we know that the poem takes place sometime in the past, but we don’t know how far back. However, given the sophisticated layers of irony and bitterness in the poem, the speaker is probably an adult looking back at his boyhood. Consider, for instance, the cheeky way the speaker frames the altercation with his father as a “waltz.” He extends this thematic framework by sustaining an upbeat mood through the poem’s jaunty meter and lively rhyme scheme. Though he’s recounting a troubling scene, the speaker evidently relishes his own mastery of poetic form. It’s possible that this cheekiness has characterized the speaker since he was a boy. For instance, the poem seems to recount a bedtime scene in which the speaker refused to sleep, as many young children do. That resistance doesn’t excuse his father’s abuse, of course. The point is simply that the adult speaker may have preserved a cheeky sense of resistance he first cultivated as a boy.

If the speaker did indeed cultivate a cheeky attitude as a boy, he likely did so in response to feelings of powerlessness. His father clearly asserted his power over his son’s body, throwing him around and eventually picking him up and carrying him to bed. Perhaps in light of his inability to exert physical control over his father, the speaker used everyday resistance tactics (like physically refusing to go to bed) as a way to employ his own type of power. This interpretation helps establish a sense of continuity between the speaker as a boy and the speaker as a man. Just as he used his body to resist his father’s demands as a boy, the speaker now uses language to assert a new type of power and resist the memory of his father. That is, the adult speaker uses his mastery of the art of poetry to control how he represents his father, casting him in a negative light for anyone to see. Such an expression of control likely feels cathartic and empowering for the speaker, even as he continues to process the traumas of his childhood.

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