Painful Proof of Love

Paper Summary:

This paper reviews and compares two poems: "I Cannot Remember All the Times..." (1989) written by Jo Carson and "My Papa's Waltz" (1948) written by Theodore Roethke. Both poems explore ideas of abuse in the perspective of the person that is on the receiving side. Carson's poem talks of abuse from a boyfriend or husband while Roethke speaks of abuse of a child from a father. The paper examines how the different poetic elements such as sound, imagery, and symbolism are important to the themes of each poem and contribute to the understanding of the poems because they heighten the emotion and allow the reader to feel what the speaker is going through. The paper also looks at how one of the most relevant of these elements is the speaker/auditor relationship in each poem.

From the Paper:

"In "My Papa's Waltz", the speaker appears to be a child speaking to his father and reflecting on what seems to be an abusive relationship. Although it is not universally agreed that this is a poem about child abuse, there are many images and diction choices that seem to point to that theme. There is a very simple rhyme scheme of ABAB and the poem is written in iambic trimeter so, there are important stresses on particular words that need to be followed. For example, in the first stanza, "But I hung on like death" (line 3), the word "death", the third stanza, "Was battered on one knuckle;" (10) the word "battered" and the fourth stanza, "You beat time on my head" (13) the word "beat". These words that are forced to have the stress contribute to a negative tone, especially within the rest of the context of the poem. The meter in this poem shows which words should be paid more attention to and which words have more importance."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Carson, Jo. "I Cannot Remember All the Times..." Schakel and Jack Ridl 287-88.
• Roethke, Theodore. "My Papa's Waltz." Schakel and Jack Ridl 71.
• Sckakel, Peter and Jack Ridl, ed. Approaching Poetry: Perspectives and Responses. New York: St. Martin's Press, Inc., 1997.

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