My

Papa’s Waltz

Was waltzing with his father a pleasant experience for the speaker?
Theodore Roethke (1948)

_____________________________________________

1 The whiskey on your breath

2 Could make a small boy dizzy; _____________________________________________

3 But I hung on like death:

_____________________________________________

4 Such waltzing was not easy.
_____________________________________________

_____________________________________________
5 We romped until the pans
6 Slid from the kitchen shelf; _____________________________________________

7 My mother’s countenance
_____________________________________________
8 Could not unfrown itself.
_____________________________________________


9 The hand that held my wrist _____________________________________________
10 Was battered on one knuckle;
_____________________________________________
11 At every step you missed
_____________________________________________
12 My right ear scraped a buckle.

_____________________________________________

13 You beat time on my head _____________________________________________

14 With a palm caked hard by dirt,
_____________________________________________
15 Then waltzed me off to bed
16 Still clinging to your shirt. _____________________________________________


_____________________________________________