Short answer

A Passage from “ My Papa’s Waltz” by Theodore Roethke: An Analysis The passage describes the manifested actions of the narrator’s father while supposedly depicting a waltz. The figurative languages of the passage are as follows: ‘ The hand that held my wrist’ obviously relates to the boy’s father’s hand that was clasping on his wrist during the supposed waltz. The narrator was focusing on the hand which was described to be ‘ battered on one knuckle”. By this phrase, the readers could envision the battered knuckle and vivid imagination could emerge from things and suggestions as what caused the battering of this one knuckle.
The next phrases: ‘ every step you missed’ means that in the supposed dance between father and son where the father held the son by the wrist, there were instances that the father missed his step and was evidently remembered by the boy because of the next phrase that says: ‘ my right ear scraped a buckle’. This phrase clearly provides the readers information on the boy’s height which reached only the father’s waist (that contains the belt with a buckle).
These phrases have vividly illustrated a dance being actively undertaken by the father and son, with the son, as the narrator describing in figurative detail, his father’s appearance from where he could clearly see (the battered knuckle and the hurt in his right ear instigated by the buckle when his father missed a dance step).
Work Cited
Roethke, Theodore. “ My Papa’s Waltz”. ll. 9-12. Print.