This poem was hands down the best poem I ever read. My Papa's Waltz could be taken in two totally different directions. The author writes, "The hand that held my wrist was battered on one knuckle; at every step you missed my right ear scraped a buckle." The way that I understand it, the child is being physically abused, but in another aspect, the father is just coming home under the influence of alcohol and playing with the child and putting him to bed. In this part of the poem the child says that he is clinging to his father shirt, "You beat time on my head with a palm caked hard by dirt, then waltzed me off to bed still clinging to your shirt." Even though the father is drunk and pushing the child into things, he's still clinging on to dear life. This poem can be confusing and hard to comprehend what the author is actually trying to get us to understand, it is a very fun story and poem to read!
I agree that this poem can be taken in two totally different directions depending on your point of view. I think the author wrote it this way on purpose so people could form their own opinions about it.
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