My Papa's Waltz

My Papa's Waltz

The whiskey on your breath
Could make a small boy dizzy;
But I hung on like death:
Such waltzing was not easy.

We romped until the pans
Slid from the kitchen shelf;
My mother's countenance
Could not unfrown itself.

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

You beat time on my head
With a palm caked hard by dirt,
Then waltzed me off to bed
Still clinging to your shirt.

     When I first read this poem i have to say that i was confused. First off people had different opinions on what the poem was about. Some said that this poem was simply about a young boy playfully Waltzing with his father. Ohters however argued that this poem was not about a young boy Waltzing with his father but instead it was about the young boy being abused.  Both points cant be aregued. It all depends on how you personally interpet the peom.
  
    First of all we can clearily see that the father is drinking at the time because of the line "The whiskey on your breath/ Could make a small boy dizzy" The father was obviously intoxicated at the time . Some might think that this man must have an problem with alchol while others might say that he might have just had a hard day at work and come home and had a drink. You must also take into consideration the time at which the poem was written and realize that people were experiencing hard times during this time peroid as a result of the great depression.

     This is where i can see people saying that they think the young boy was being abused " We romped until the pans / Slid from the kitchen shelf ; My mothers countenance / Could not unfrown it's self" when i first read this poem i simply thought that this meant that the mother was unhappy the the father and son were playing rough and making a mess in the kitchen. Another line that might give people the insentive that the young boy was being abused is " You beat time on my head/ With a plam caked hard by dirt" . I personally thought that this just meant that the father was patting his son on the head as that waltzed around the kitchen . Others though might think that this meant that the father ws beating his son hard on the head . 

   In conculsion I do not think one can fully argue that one opinion is either right or wrong. It all depends on how you interpret the poem yourself. Arguments can be made for and against the abuse and vice versa. This was one of my favorite poems after reading it the second time and understanding what was going on. In my opinion this poem was simply about a sonand father playing and being a bit rough as the father was waltzing with his son and not about the boy beign abused. However i could be wrong. What do you think?