The American writer Roger Gould once said: “Deep inside us, we know what every family therapist knows: the problems between parents become the problems of children. " This sad reality can be shown in Theodore Roethke's poem “My Papa's Waltz”, which focuses on the relationship between a father and his son, who are involved in some form of waltz/dance. The poet presents the parental figure as a drunkard, and this is justified by the way in which it was easy to smell the liquor on his breath. The son evidently cannot stand the smell and complains about many other things, including pulling on his ear until he falls asleep. Understanding the theme of child abuse in Roethke's poem “My Papa's Waltz” affirms the use of various stylistic devices relevant to the literary work. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't be forbidden"? Get an original essay The most obvious aspect of the poem is the speaker's position in allowing the reader to understand domestic violence. The speaker is a man who recounts the childhood memory he had with his father since it is evident that the father molested the son in many ways. The statement “It could make a child's head spin” implies that the speaker remembers moments he had with his father when he was younger. Another relevant device used in the poem to describe the relationship between the two is tone. The poem can be described as resentful as he did not receive proper parenting from his parents, more specifically his father. The phrase describing “Such a waltz was not easy” implies that the son remembers how much pain he would have to endure while his abusive father danced him. The poetic tone used, therefore, leads the reader to believe that the father was failing in his role and caused unnecessary pain to his son. The use of irony in the poem is another way of understanding the relationship between the child and his parent. It is ironic that the word “waltz” is used to describe the way the father moved since the term implies a formal dance form. However, considering that the son was referring to his drunken father's movement, it is clear that it was far from what would be perceived as formal. The fact that the boy even remembers his father's alcoholic breath means that it was not an official move, implying that the idea of ​​the waltz is satirical. It is also crucial to describe the use of imagery in the poem because the stylistic device allows the reader to understand how the father tortured his son in the past. The senses of sound, sight, and touch are all expressed figuratively, and the reader should use critical thinking to understand their meaning. For example, it is described: "You beat the clock on my head." This statement could easily be thought of as a way to describe the movement the father was making with his son. However, a more critical analysis demonstrates that 'beating' appears to have a more violent connotation as it refers to the element of beatings that the son was experiencing in his childhood. The beating could also be used to allude to his father's knuckles and thus establish an undercurrent of violence of which the boy is a victim. The use of simile is also illustrative of the implications of the pain the boy has experienced in his past. There is only one in the poem, and the poet introduces it in the third line when he says, “But I resisted like death” to describe the desperation he had to establish an optimistic relationship with his father. However, she had to endure his violent temper even if she wanted to,.