Child abuse is physical mistreatment that unfortunately happens to children all over the world. Similarly, the poem “My Papa's Waltz” by Theodore Roethke describes and gives readers insight into what child abuse means. The poem presents a relationship between a drunken father and his son. Therefore, the poem's setting, sensory details, and word choice allow the reader to understand the violence the child experiences after his father returns from work. The setting of the poem is very important in understanding the key elements that the poet is trying to address. squeeze. The poem "My Dad's Waltz" is set in the family kitchen. The lines “The whiskey on your breath… slipped off the kitchen shelf”; we let readers assume that some kind of music is playing on the radio in the kitchen that the little boy and his drunken father are dancing to (Roethke 126). But the boy's mother doesn't seem very happy and the apparent reason, as stated in the poem, is that the waltz in the kitchen is knocking all the pots and pans off the shelf. The mother's unhappiness can ...