Response to "My Papa's Waltz"

      

       I first read this poem in the seventh grade with Mr. Ravin and he told us, well gave us the idea that the poem is about a father abusing his child when he was drunk. Now that I look at it in the way described in class, I think that it about a boy and his father actually doing the waltz. But there is still the doubt in my mind that it is really about abuse because of the title and because of the content in the poem.

       I really like this poem and when i talked about in class with my group at first I agreed with Peter that the dad was hitting him every time he got the dance wrong, or he was just hitting him and the narrator was trying to soften it up. But then I switched to Ruby's side because what she was saying was actually making sense and it made more sense than what Peter was saying.

       This poem is either about a boy and his father doing the waltz or about a father beating his kid because he is drunk. And what I usually witness is that whenever someone is drunk they start stuff with people and then a fight or beat down usually starts. But I could be wrong.