My Papa’s Waltz
Ned Rorem * Track #5 On 14 Songs on American Poetry
My Papa’s Waltz Lyrics
The whiskey on your breath
Could make a small boy dizzy;
But I hung on like death:
Such waltzing was not easy
We romped until the pans
Slid from the kitchen shelf;
My mother's countenance
Could not unfrown itself
The hand that held my wrist
Was battered on one knuckle;
At every step you missed
My right ear scraped a buckle
You beat time on my head
With a palm caked hard by dirt
Then waltzed me off to bed
Still clinging to your shirt
My Papa’s Waltz Q&A
Who wrote My Papa’s Waltz's ?
My Papa’s Waltz was written by Ned Rorem & Theodore Roethke.