Dancing to a Different Tune

"My Papa's Waltz" gets very interesting responses on the cultural level. I first read it last semester in Rereading America, and assumed it was about a rugged father, who thought nothing of a few drinks, whisking his son off to bed. Fathers don't always demonstrate a gentleness that we expect from a mother, especially when the child is a boy; so, the dad's romping with his son before bedtime seemed somewhat heartfelt from a tough, whiskey drinking, hardworking father. We can see from lines 7 and 8 Mom is unhappy about this charade, and from line 14 ("a palm caked hard by dirt") guess that Dad has just gotten home from work.  However, as Rereading America discusses, that interpretation isn't always easily seen today.  Today we have different presumptions as to what a proper parent should be and this tuff dad isn't exactly exemplar of those. Negative conclusions come from line 3's mention of death, and probably line 12 and 13, which might be misread as intentional harm from the father.  I remember reading the poem to my sister, who is 4 years younger than me: she thought it was about a drunk and abusive dad.  I found that curious because we are not so vastly different in age and grew up in the same household, so shouldn't our cultural impressions be similar? But I think here is where some of Foster's reading is useful, because not only do we have cultural conventions suggesting what should and shouldn't be, but also individual viewpoints accumulated from life experiences.  Each of us have our own ideas about how things should be, which can sometimes deflect actual meaning and replace it with our own interpretations. If I am aware of myself while I am reading, I can anticipate when it becomes necessary for me to step back from the text and take a second look--something I am continuing to improve on as the class progresses.