Week 7

Rainy days.
By: Cassidy Janes

Some

People say that

 they hate rainy days.

They kick and complain

Until the gray sky’s go away.

 All they need is a pair of rubbers

That fit em’ and a little optimism.

For living in this city would be a shame, if

You can’t learn to laugh in

 the rain.

Week 6

My Papa's Waltz
By:Theodore Roethke

The whiskey on your breath
Could make a small boy dizzy;
But I hung on like death:
Such waltzing was not easy.

We romped until the pans
Slid from the kitchen shelf;
My mother's countenance
Could not unfrown itself.

The hand that held my wrist
Was battered on one knuckle;
At every step you missed
My right ear scraped a buckle.

You beat time on my head
With a palm caked hard by dirt,
Then waltzed me off to bed
Still clinging to your shirt.


         a small boy    ;
     hung on

          until  he
Slid from the         shelf;  
   mother
Could not unfrown

              he
    battered    one knuckle;

          scraped a 


       palm 

Week 5

1.)

The poem “My Papa’s Waltz” by Theodore Roethke demonstrates how alcoholic parents negatively affect their children’s childhood memories. The past tense verbs in the line “a small boy” make it clear to the reader that the speaker is now grown and is reflecting on a memory. These memories described in this poem are clearly unpleasant because Theodore states “My mother’s countenance Could not unfrown itself”. This shows how the fathers drinking not only caused problems for him but disrupted the whole family. It is made clear in the line “you beat time on my head” that emotionally the speaker’s memories of childhood were devastating due to his father’s drinking. Every minute he had to tolerate it was torture. Lastly the speaker’s memories became obviously negative once we read line 11 “At every step you missed My right ear scraped a buckle”. Not only did the speaker’s alcoholic father create bad memories by upsetting his mother but it hurt him emotionally and physically.