"My Papa's Waltz" Poem Analysis Class Discussion

           The first time I read this poem I thought it was about a father abusing his child from him under the influence of alcohol. This is from the use of the author's language that makes it contradictory from their being more than one meaning people can interpret. The "waltz" in this poem is referring to the harsh dancing the father is forcing on the child. In the first stanza, there is a forceful tone from the child having to hang on like death to stay in motion with his dad. The child is also dizzy from the strong whiskey on his dad's breath and it is hard for him to stay up while his dad is also sloppy from being drunk. Then comes the part in stanza two, where the pans are falling from the kitchen shelf and the mother is frowning. It sounds like the child is being banged into the shelf from the father swinging him around. The mother's expression exemplifies the tone of harshness more by her facial expression being frowned from her mind also being frowned, or in disbelief. Her being in disbelief suggests that what has been done can't be undone and she is in total anger and or frightened from this happening. The tone of the father's appearance helps better understand the speaker's experience by the "hand caked hard by dirt" being kind of threatening to make it seem like this child was frightened by this and went along with the dance routine to get less abused. If the father would miss a step, then the child would slip and hit his ear on the dad's belt buckle. The belt buckle could be expressing the whipping a child gets for being naughty and be used in the poem as a hint for abusing by the father. Also the beating time over the child's head with a palm caked hard by dirt could be a hint for the dad beating the kid over the head from being so drunk. The palm caked hard by dirt could also be a hint of threat the dad holds.
           When I found out that the author's dad died when he was 14, I interpreted the poem in a whole new way. Now I see it as the father coming home from an exhausting day of work and sitting down to eat dinner. He has some whiskey as he eats and get drunk from drinking too much. Then the child comes out wanting to play with his father and they start dancing around the kitchen. They are kind of rough housing as they dance and slip occasionally from the father losing balance, or the kid being dizzy. When they slip, they hit into the kitchen shelf and made pans slid down onto the floor. The mother is frowning from this from the fact that they are making a mess of the kitchen, but she also finds this dancing amusing. Every once in a while the father would miss a step and make the child hit his ear on the father's belt buckle. This beating time on the child's head with a palm caked hard by dirt is referring to the father taking time out of the child's play time with him to be out working. Then once the father is too tired to go on, he dances the child along into bed while the child is gripping on his shirt. The child does this while pleading to stay up longer to have fun, but the father makes him go to bed.