She can't see him in a negative light and doesn't want to be separated from him. “You beat time on my head/With a palm caked in dirt,/Then you waltzed me to bed/Still clinging to your shirt (13-16). According to the narrative of this poem, “You beat time on my head” does not suggest that the father is intentionally abusing the boy. It suggests a scenario where a drunken man waltzing would be very loose and would sometimes hit the child unknowingly. The line "With a palm caked with earth" also does much to confuse the meaning of the poem. It is assumed that his father's hands are dirty in some way because of his alcoholism, but in reality his hands are dirty because his father often worked in a greenhouse as a farmer. This leads to the last two lines of the poem where the boy's feelings towards his father come full circle. When the waltz ends, and despite the aggressive nature of the dance, the boy in the poem does not want to stop and go to bed. He clings to his shirt, just as he clings to this memory of their dance together. Perhaps these were the moments when he felt closer to his father than ever before? This poem, unlike Plath's, doesn't seem to be an angry letter hoping to make it, it's more of a reminiscing memory. It is also worth noting that in the title of this poem Roethke uses the word "daddy" instead of father. Not