Upon reading the poem for the first time I thought that the poem is in dark and depressing

setting. I
thought that the lines “The whisky on your breath could make a boy dizzy; but I hung on like death such
waltzing was not easy” have a darker meaning behind it, and there were also words in the poem which
have a darker meaning behind it such as the words “death”.

As reading the poem a second and third time I concluded that it is not as dark and depressing. The lines
before are just a representation of the father and son’s playful fights with each other.

I believe that Theodore Roethle planned to tell the story regarding his father. This is expected to depict a
affectionate recollection. It appears to be that Roethke uses a couple of scholarly gadgets to assist the
pursuer with bettering that there were some unideal properties to the storyteller reveals some insight
into is the dull or burdensome tone that I ran over in my first reading. The storyteller appears to pardon
or excuse these negative qualities all through the sonnet. Trough imagery and capacity utilization of
meter and rhyme, Roethke imparts this passionate hurricane to his pursuers