Response to "My Papa's Waltz"

    After reading the poem, "My Papa's Waltz", my group and I debated on the meaning of the poem, and about what the author was trying to say by writing it.
    On one end of the argument, was Peter and Anna. They thought that the poem was about how the writer was being beaten, and the waltz was a symbol for abuse rather then a actual moment. The evidence they used to back up their story was the line in the poem "The whiskey on your breath/ Could make a small boy dizzy". Another line they used to back up the poem was "At every step you missed/ My right ear scraped a buckle". They inferred that these lines meant that the father was drunk and the boy was being abused as they did the waltz.
   When I first read the poem, I thought of it differently. I thought that Peter and Anna were reading into the poem too much, and maybe it really was just about a simple moment that this boy shared with his father. I tried to show that just because he had whiskey on his breath did not mean he was drunk, and even if he was, it does not necessarily mean he was abusing his child. Also, if the young boy was small, then perhaps when the father slipped his ear bumped against the fathers buckle. Overall, the feeling I got from the poem was not a negative one, I simply thought it was a poem about a moment shared between a father and a son.
   However, wen I got home, I took a closer look at the poem and began to understand what Peter and Anna were saying. If you look at the poem, the words that the author chose to use were not ones that sounded particularly cheery. For example "You beat time on my hear/ With a palm caked hard by dirt" and "But I hung on like death: Such waltzing was not easy". When reading the poem again, I realized that it did not sound like a poem about a fun and enjoyable dance, but more about something deeper. Like in the line "We romped until the pans/Slid from the kitchen shelf". I don't think the waltz would be referred to as a 'romp' or be so forceful that it made the pans slide from the shelves. And so, my opinion about the poem changed. However, unlike Anna and Peter, I don't think it was about a dance at all, I think that was more of a symbol. I think the poem may have been more about the relationship the boy had with his father, and the poem was a symbol for it.
 

Rhyme Poem

I wondered if you could tell
by the way I grasped her
holding her out as if
I didn't care if she fell

I wondered if you knew
by the way I dug my nails
deeper still as if
I could end everything for you

I wondered if you saw
the warning

Poem on an Incident

pale

pale

not the face

 i know

rags, ripped

stone

cold.

"here she is"

he spoke

at last

"i do not see her"

i replied

Poem on a Photo

her skin
marred
her clothing
ragged
she is
raw,
sharp.
yet
her eyes
are
a million
damp summer leaves
flitting within each
iris.

Poem- Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose

There is
 allure
to this world
of theirs.
 With
dripping fabric,
the
petals of the lily.
The blush, brush
of the rose.
Graceful dance
of the grasses.
A billowing
ballet.
There is light
fleeting,
iridescent.
Even as the shadows swim
stealthily
There
it is

Painting Analysis- Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose

Observations-
- The two children in the painting are dressed only in white nightgowns
- The only thing surrounding them (besides the lanterns) is nature, there is no evidence of where they are or of a house, there is only the flowers and grass.
- The flowers surrounding them are mostly white and yellow (lilys and buttercups)
- We can not see the girls eyes, as they are lowered
- It appears to be summer, everything is in full bloom.
- It also seems to be evening, as the light is slightly dimmed and the lanterns light up the area that they are in.
- The girls are in the center of the painting, and the rest is the forest and the lanterns.
- Lanterns look mystical and fairy-like, they glow. You forget they are man-made, they become part of the scenery.
- The trees and flowers look as if they are closing in on the two girls in a little circle, they surround them.

Inferences-
- I think the children's white dresses and the lilys show a re-accuring pattern of white in the painting. Perhaps it represents innocence/ purity.
- I think the way the artist constructed the foreground and background to look as if the flowers and nature was all that was around them gave a feeling of a different world. It gives the painting a magical feel, almost dream like. Maybe representing the imagination of the youth?
- The way the children are looking at the lanterns so amazed gives the lanterns a mystical glow. Representing the love children have for other things and how they are always amazed?

Interpretations-
- I think the painter was trying to create the world of magic, imagination, and innocence that children live in. The painting also has a slightly wistful feeling.