Sande 1
Ta Nika Sanders
Mr. Miranda
English 1302
April 3, 2014
Compare and contrast the persona/narrator in ‘My Papa’s Waltz’ by Theodore Roethke and
‘Blue’ by Brian Haycock.
In the poem ‘My Papa’s Waltz’, by Theodore Roethke the persona describes his
relationship with his father as a young boy. The author uses the voice of a child that addresses his
father directly in the past tense. The father-son relationship the persona describes seems to be
violent and an unfulfilling one, devoid of love or any caring emotions. From the poem, it is
evident that the persona’s father was an alcoholic “The whiskey on your breath, could make a
