WRITTEN ANALYSIS

(Based on the two illustrations)

The poem My Papa’s Waltz by Theodore Roethke, was about a drunk father who was
having waltz with his son. Their waltz is pretty clumsy – the pans are sliding from the shelf, and
the mother was not too happy about that.

For our illustration of this poem, we showed here the items or elements which we were
able to understand. Since the poem focuses mainly on the drunk father who kept on dancing with
his son, we drew both characters in the very front part of our paper to give emphasis to them
since they are the main characters in the poem. Also, the figure of an angry wife or mother was
drawn at the back since it was also stated that she was completely annoyed towards the attitude
that the father or his husband was showing and that she can’t afford to watch all the mess and
chaos he’s been causing.

Moreover, the poem also sends its message that the son was completely patient with his
drunk father that no matter how stinky or strong the smell of alcohol is, nor how great the mess
he had caused, he still accompanies his dad and dances with him dearly, so we made sure to
indicate the happy expression in the son’s face and also to depict the warm feeling he has towards
his father.

In the poem ironing their clothes by Julia Alvarez, on the other hand, we drew a girl or a
woman who was ironing some clothes. Those clothes were said to be her family’s -her mom, dad,
and sister’s. By the kind of act that she was portraying, it is somehow illustrating or depicting the
love and admiration she has towards the members of their family. It seems like the girl knows
that in the everyday life the other family members are busy with chores and cannot always spare
time for a hug or kind word. However, she finds the way to express her love. All the clothes of
the family are ironed by her, and all the creases in the shirts or skirts are perfectly smooth.

Upon ironing their clothes and watching closely every single detail or material of the clothing,
she is somehow thinking or imagining what they were up to or the possible things she wished to
do to them. Like the way she’s thinking of her dad and the kind of work he does, her mom- the
different chores she does, the washing, drying, and ironing even and also her sister.
The poem ends with the direct statement of this girl confessing in a sense the lack of love
expression in her home. “All that my careful hand had ironed out, forced to express my excess
love on cloth”.