Theodore Roethke: My Papa's Waltz

Reading the poems by Theodore Roethke, I found myself relating to My Papa's Waltz. My grandpa used to take us down to his farm and have us help with anything and everything. Sometimes, the tasks would be, to most concered parents, a little too much for children of our age. I remember one such occasion in which we were cutting wire off an old fence. My grandpa had my cousin holding a stip of barb wire about twenty yards away from the strand he was working on cutting. My grandma was watching with an exasperated expression, but had realized years ago argueing with him probably wouldn't change his mind. Sure enough, my granpa cut the wire and it rolled right into my cousin giving him a nice cut on his chin that ended up needing stiches. Similar to in My Papa Waltz's I know my grandpa cared for all of us grandkids, but probably didn't know the bounderies between what we were capable of doing and what we were too young for. Like the narrartor in the poem, I both loved my grandpa, but also recognized the strange ways that he would put us at risk unkowingly.