In "My Papa's Waltz," a simple dance becomes a source of intense emotion, overwhelming the speaker and even the home itself to such an extent that pots and pans are sent tumbling to the floor. Dance, here, is a symbolically rich and extremely sensory experience, in which the relationship between the speaker and the father is revealed in all its complexity. It is also a source of simultaneous order and chaos, with both paradoxically stemming from the same simple dance. The waltz itself has been a popular form of ballroom dance for centuries, and has proven no less complex in real life than in Roethke's poem, at times igniting intense emotion.
The waltz is a relatively simple ballroom dance performed by a couple in 3/4 time. It consists of a step, followed by a glide and another step. Originally, the waltz evolved from central European folk dances, largely popular with peasantry. Thus the earliest iterations of what we might now call a waltz have medieval roots. In the eighteenth century, a specifically Viennese style of dance evolved from a folk dance known as the Ländler, joining an ever-shifting array of popular ballroom dances. This new style of waltz was picked up, not only by peasants, but by the upper classes. It eventually became prominent in the court of the Habsburgs, the ruling family of the Austro-Hungarian empire.
The Viennese waltz differed somewhat from its cousins scattered across Europe—compared to the English style of waltzing, for instance, it was markedly faster. Not only did it necessitate quick and constant turns, with the dancing couple spinning around one another, but it broke a taboo because it required the dancing partners to touch one another. Prior to the acceptance of the waltz in upper-class circles, most European ballroom dances involved no touching at all, or else very little. The new dance became the subject of criticism, particularly from religious leaders, who argued that it was vulgar, sinful, and immoral. Furthermore, the ease with which the dance could be learned became a source of displeasure: many dance teachers and experts were concerned by the growth of this unprecedentedly accessible style.
Despite this criticism, and even numerous attempts to ban the Viennese waltz entirely, the dance only gained popularity throughout the nineteenth century and remained highly popular well into the twentieth. It became popular well outside of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, with marked popularity in England, where it was known as the "German Waltz." As in Austria, though the dance was at first considered somewhat taboo, it quickly gained widespread acceptance. This popularity demanded a range of music to accompany dancers during the waltz, prompting composers from Chopin to Brahms to Strauss to write now-famous pieces of music played for the benefit of waltz-lovers. Even today, when ballroom dancing has considerably less of a hold on popular culture, waltzing remains one of the most prominent forms of partnered dancing worldwide. Furthermore, the music composed to accompany waltzes has in many ways outlived the dance culture of the era, becoming beloved in its own right.
Because of the widespread and long-lasting popularity of the waltz, authors have been able to use it as a shorthand or metaphor. For Roethke, it is both a source of rhythmic inspiration and a tool for hinting at structure, physicality, and cooperation as well as conflict and disorder. However, the waltz's own conflicts go well beyond the realm of metaphor: its explosive growth during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries prompted equal parts excitement and approbation. Just as the waltz in Roethke's poem is a kind of cipher, offering audiences multiple interpretations, the waltz became a site of varied and contradictory interpretations for the Europeans who witnessed its meteoric rise.
