In a different light, everything in this poem is much more innocent than what the modern reader may think is implied. In the first stanza, the whiskey breath is not directly connected to alchoholism. In fact, alcoholism was not a common word that was used in 1942. It was extremely common for a man to come home from a hard day of work and have a strong liquor drink to relax. It still is in some families and cultures today. Roethke adds in the poem that the mother's expression was not pleasent, which tells the reader that maybe dad had a little too much with dinner (I hate that look!). If he was doing something horribly wrong, theres no doubt that mom would be doing something more than scowling in the
In a different light, everything in this poem is much more innocent than what the modern reader may think is implied. In the first stanza, the whiskey breath is not directly connected to alchoholism. In fact, alcoholism was not a common word that was used in 1942. It was extremely common for a man to come home from a hard day of work and have a strong liquor drink to relax. It still is in some families and cultures today. Roethke adds in the poem that the mother's expression was not pleasent, which tells the reader that maybe dad had a little too much with dinner (I hate that look!). If he was doing something horribly wrong, theres no doubt that mom would be doing something more than scowling in the