"My Papa's Waltz"

Winner of both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award, the poet Theodore Roethke describes a moment that has different emotions for a son (the speaker in the poem) than for his father and mother.

Here are all the word lists to support the reading of Grade 12 Unit 1's texts from SpringBoard's Common Core ELA series: My Papa's Waltz, in just-, The Last Word, Mushrooms, I Remember, Invisible Man, Four Skinny Trees, Dirty Work, On Seeing England for the First Time, Speaking with Hands, The White Man's Burden, The Poor Man's Burden, Shooting an Elephant, Lindo Jong: Double Face, Stranger in the Village
10 words 239 learners

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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. whisky
    a liquor made from fermented mash of grain
    The whisky on your breath
  2. dizzy
    having or causing a whirling sensation; liable to falling
    could make a small boy dizzy
  3. waltz
    dance a ballroom dance in triple time
    But I hung on like death
    Such waltzing is not easy.
  4. romp
    play boisterously
    We romped until the pans
    Slid from the kitchen shelf
  5. countenance
    the human face
    My mother's countenance
  6. frown
    look angry or sullen as if to signal disapproval
    Could not unfrown itself.
  7. battered
    damaged especially by hard usage
    The hand that held one wrist
    Was battered on one knuckle
  8. buckle
    fastener that fastens together two ends of a belt or strap
    At every step you missed
    My right ear scraped a buckle.
  9. cake
    form a coat over
    You beat time on my head
    With a palm caked hard by dirt
  10. cling
    hold on tightly or tenaciously
    Then waltzed me off to bed
    Still clinging to your shirt.
Created on Tue Mar 03 15:17:21 EST 2015 (updated Thu Mar 05 08:54:50 EST 2015)

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