Category: My Papa’s Waltz

“My Papa’s Waltz” is a domestic ballad illustrating a jovial waltz around the kitchen – a snapshot- fueled by nostalgia, reflection, and love, allowing the reader to contemplate their childhood and family. Roethke’s expert use of rhythm, rhyme and language enraptures the reader, creating an emotive piece which universally resonates with the audience. Conversely, when this simplicity is abandoned, chaos and vulnerability prevail. Sinister themes emerge and a sense of fear towards the father is uncovered. The true meaning is elusive. This is the case for all poetry- its most beautiful asset is its subjectiveness, its ability to divide and connect people, and the weight that personal experience, history, and attitude play in any given interpretation.

Williams describes the ballad form as “robustly orientated towards gathering of people, mostly united by circumstance” (Williams 2019: 35). The spirit of this poem unites people with a topic that is inevitably relatable: family. Roethke depicts a familiar scene of drunken dancing with a parent, comical disapproval from a mother, and looseness that is indicative of alcohol. Furthermore, the emotional scene between father and son- the tenderness exhibited by the lulling assonance and the gesture of putting one’s child to bed is touching and can be felt far and wide.

Moreover, “a palm caked hard in dirt” reveals the extreme exhaustion of the father and elucidates his drinking, crafting a moving point about the plight of the working class. The child is absorbed in this dancing, not yet understand the hardship of the world. The trochee (“Slid”) continues to emphasize chaos- which escapes the child’s notice- and characterizes the harsh clattering of pots and pans. The mother’s expression being unable to “unfrown itself” is threefold: illustrating the hardship of poverty; the intrinsic instinct to shelter a child; and the submissive role of the woman.

Gender roles lay at the crux of this. The mother remains a silent figure who is not considered. Indeed, the father is never addressed, yielding a sense of reverence and submission to the obvious ‘breadwinner’. Interestingly, on reflection the speaker observes with the mother; although in the moment the child was captivated by the father now empathy emerges for the mother.

As such, this poem has a profound sense of reflection and introspection. “My Papa’s Waltz” is part of the Greenhouse collection which Roethke himself expresses as his “symbol for the whole of life, a womb, a heaven on earth”. Hence, it is unfathomable to suggest that, when the poet holds his upbringing and father in an ethereal light, Roethke intended this to be a powerhouse of domestic turmoil and alcohol abuse. It is simply the representation of the trials and tribulation of life, the complex nature of family and memories, and the fine line between resentment and admiration. In essence this waltz is a depiction of tugging emotions, pushing and pulling between father and son, challenging the conformed belief that love is the antithesis of hate.

However, “The Poem is like a seesaw”. The emotional domestic scene (“Then waltzed me off to bed/Still clinging to your shirt”); the jovial dance and joking disapproval of the mother; the love and admiration for the father, can be undercut by personal experience and subjective interpretation. There is undeniable unease in this poem, domestic bliss is couched in fear and trepidation, the “waltz” is interwoven with tension and double entendre. From the half-rhymes, the jumbling end-stops and enjambement, the sporadic spondee, it is a lattice of ambiguity and darkness: was the “waltz” an extended metaphor for incestuous rape or abuse?

This bleak reading is heightened by the use of language: “Such waltzing was not easy”. The nature of this dance is simplistic and so why is the iambic trimeter-which mimics the pattern of the waltz- so disrupted? This could be cast aside as a light-hearted mocking of the father’s inebriated state, but when delving deeper it unveils tension between father and son- a battle of wills- an attempt to overpower, escape and compete with one another.

The catalytic foot put forth by the half-rhymes (“dizzy”, “easy”) left this modified ballad unbalanced (disrupting the ABAB of the four quatrains) from the foundation. This further emphasizes the metaphorical dance that the father and son are entangled in- they are on edge and wary- as the lines between love and aggression are blurred. The repetition of the “s” sound in the second quatrain portrays the slurring of words and the unstoppable force of the father. Nevertheless, it is evident that the son still craves this, although in retrospect he understands the “mother’s countenance”, he would never forfeit this memory. Thus, exhibiting an agonizing longing for a paternal figure. Additionally, the cyclical form- due to the beginning and end of the waltz- highlights the finite nature of life and happiness, whilst creating conflict between a fleeting memory and the permanent impact it has on the persona. Just as the boy was “clinging” to the father’s shirt, so too is his adult self clinging to this naive portrayal of his father’s actions.

The spondee aforementioned “Beat time on”, once interpreted as the beat of the dance or the transient state ever playing in the mind of the persona, can now portray violence. It is both figuratively, and literally, a punch-yet another contrast between the powerful and the vulnerable. This idea is fostered through the unnatural pause after the simile “hung on like death”, leaving the sing-song rhythm feeling insidious, creating dangerous vibrations, as the reader is forced to ruminate on its implication and is jarringly pulled out of the harmony.

Therefore, Roethke intended this to be a poem of family love and self- reflection, but over time it has become multifaceted. “My Papa’s Waltz” is an entrancing combination of contrast, tackling a broad spectrum of issues: gender roles, relationships, love, abuse, and the ephemeral nature of time. Every technique, every rhyme, every word could be interpreted differently. The poet puts words on paper; the reader brings a poem to life.

A father should be a role model for his son. Perhaps going to the kitchen with his son to turn the radio to an oldy and waltz together. They have fun as the child romps and tries to figure out what his father’s doing and follow his footsteps. Oftentimes, this perfect world isn’t reality.

Sometimes kids have a father who goes to work, and comes home late after hours at the bar. They go to the kitchen just to stumble around while the father holds onto the son’s wrist for support while filling the room with the scent of whiskey. They’re not a role model but instead give their child a firsthand experience on how alcohol can ruin a family and how opportunities to create meaningful memories can be lost so easily.

In “My Papa’s Waltz”, Roethke relies on irregular iambic trimeter, a conceit comparing a drunk man’s stumbling to a waltz, varying end stop and near rhyme. With these techniques, Roethke shows how a drunk man interacts with his son and that he’s a shell of a father and husband. He sends the message to us all that alcohol addiction is damaging not only to ourselves, but also to those around us who we love the most.

Throughout the poem, Roethke uses a fairly consistent rhythm, although consistently irregular as well. This serves two purposes. He starts the poem by using iambic trimeter on the first and third lines. He also uses this on the second and fourth lines, but here there is an extra unstressed syllable at the end of the line. The reason this is significant is because a waltz is done in 34time signature. This is likely why Roethke chose to use trimeter so like the music which has three beats in a measure, the poem has 3 meters in a line, and this can make the poem seem more musical. He also includes a falling meter every other line to show the exchange between the father and son in the dance. The son is the perfect iambic trimeter while the father is not because the falling meter can be used to show his stumbling from being so drunk and not doing the dance correctly. This same thing can be seen in the third stanza. To further support this is representative of the father’s stumbling, when only the mother and son are mentioned in the second stanza, the rhythm is perfect iambic trimeter for all four lines. This is because neither the mother nor son are drunk so they “waltz” in perfect iambic trimeter. Therefore, by using an extra unstressed syllable, it helps symbolize how drunk the father is and enhances the poem’s meaning.

Another technique used by Roethke is a conceit that starts with the title of the poem. The father’s drunk stumbling is compared to a waltz in the conceit, which is the basis for the entirety of the poem. This comparison is used to juxtapose the two and make the stumbling and drunkenness seem even worse. Another purpose it serves is to show how the son will try to make light out of a bad situation, and see his father for good things instead of his problems. He will pretend his father is waltzing with him to try to create a good memory with his father from nothing.

The end stop as the poem progresses serves two main purposes. Firstly, for each stanza at the end of the third line there is no punctuation. This applies to all the stanzas besides the first. The purpose that this serves is to place emphasis on the word that comes before this colon, “death.” At the end of the first line the word “breath” is used and can be seen as representing life which quickly transitions to death by the third line. It shows if the father’s drinking habit continues, he’ll end up dead and his son will have to get through life without him, and that no matter how tight he “hung on” to his father, his father’s addiction would kill him if he didn’t change.

Another example of end stop that changes occurs in the final stanza. Semicolons are used at the end of the second line for each of the first three stanzas. However, for the final stanza, instead of a semicolon, a comma is used. This allows for the last two lines of the poem to consist of a dependent clause, instead of an independent clause. The last two lines are written to seem as if the son is holding onto his father’s shirt as his father waltzes him off to bed. However, this can be interpreted as the father “still clinging” to his own “shirt” as well. This may be done on purpose to show how the son is still trying to hang on to his father and stay close to him but the father can barely manage to hang onto his own life and is clinging onto it for dear life.

Roethke uses end rhyme that is only near rhyme for some lines as well. This can be seen on lines 2 and 4 (with the words “dizzy” and “easy”) as well as 5 and 7 (with the words “pans” and “countenance”). This is meant to show how drunk the father is because these words can only rhyme when slurred, stretched out, or pronounced incorrectly (due to being drunk). For example, with the words “dizzy” and “easy”, although they are very close to being a masculine rhyme, in order to be a feminine rhyme “dizzy” must be pronounced like “deesy” which could occur if someone has slurred speech or says it wrong which could happen when drunk. Also, for the words “pans” and “countenance” they do not rhyme because “countenance” is pronounced “countinence.” For the words to rhyme one must say countenance incorrectly which could be symbolic of the father speaking incorrectly while drunk once again.

One line that stands out entirely is line 14, as it is the only line that begins on a stressed syllable. The line reads “With a palm caked hard by dirt.” This may be used to highlight the importance of the line which shows how the father descended so low in life. He was “caked” or surrounded by unsupportive, people who were “dirt” and they may have led him down this path in his life to self-destruction. So he can do nothing, because the dirt is stuck on is hand and has become a part of him, like the negative qualities (like drinking) he may have taken on from these people.

Diction also sometimes holds double meanings in this poem. For example the word “countenance” that “could not unfrown itself” hold two meanings. Countenance can be defined as one’s facial expression, so in this case it quite literally means the mother’s face stayed frowning while the father and son “danced” in the kitchen. But countenance can also mean support depending on the context. Here, countenance can mean the mother’s support for her husband could not fade, even though he was making her life difficult.

When I first read this poem, I just saw it as a father who was drunk and a son who tried to make the best of it. I was unaware at first how Roethke manipulated the end rhyme and timing of the poem until I did a much deeper reader. It is interesting to me how the poem reads like an elegant dance with the iambic trimeter and how we can almost see the two “dancing” and stumbling just through the syntax of the poem. Not to mention it is even more elaborate because we are shown the stumbling of the drunk father through this syntax as well. This was the most interesting aspect of the poem’s construction to me.

Thematically, Roethke attempts to accomplish many different things. To name one, he tries to get the reader to understand how much alcohol addiction can hurt a family. Instead of having a happy night waltzing, it is a night with a mom who could not “unfrown” herself. Although his son is still happy, he is not setting a good example and is not exhibiting the behavior that a good father would show. Additionally, he may want to put the reader in the shoes of a child who lives in a household with an alcoholic. It is not easy and the kids do not grow up normally. Instead of going to a restaurant or to the movies movie or to a beach, they are in the kitchen nearly falling down while knocking over all the pots and pans. It shows us that we must treat each other better, because nobody knows what anybody goes through at home. What that kid experienced was a great part of his day because he got to see his father so we also must be more grateful for what we have, since we all have so much and are often not as thankful as we should be. This has helped reinforce my belief to sympathize as much as possible with people, because although I may think I know people well, there are always so many more things about every person that I do not know about. I should not judge them, because I do not know their story.

Margaret J. Wheatley, once said, “Everyone in a complex system has a slightly different interpretation. The more interpretations we gather, the easier it becomes to gain a sense of the whole.” Reading this makes me think of all the different things we can find different in each other’s lives. In the poem “My Papa’s Waltz,” by Theodore Roethke, the tone is written to subtly convey the speaker’s resentment toward his father.

The first comparison we come to likens of the tone is the speaker’s resentment to let go of who his father was in the first stanza. The speaker paints a picture of an alcoholic father who, because he doesn’t care, is beating his son half to death. He is surrounded by his wife who can’t help but to not unfrown at the situation at hand, her husband beating their child. The speaker says that the whiskey on the father’s breath would make someone feel dizzy. Despite this, the boy didn’t want to let go of his father. He said, “But I hung on like death” which implies that the boy did not want to part away from his father. He explains that the “waltzing” was not easy, but still hung on like his life depended on it. He does not want his emotions to show or else his father may do something.

The second stanza deals with the issue of not being content with life. The speaker says, “We romped until the pans / slid from the kitchen shelf” (5-6). This “romping” can be identified as to play or run in a lively manner. But, romping around could also mean taking a second to soak in all the glimpses of pain people are surrounded by in everyday life. The next two lines go on to say, “My mother’s countenance / Could not unfrown itself”. Reading this shows a glimpse of the mother’s pain as she watches her alcoholic husband beat her child. She is scared for her son’s safety. She couldn’t help but fret because of the abuse she had endured such as being abused by her husband, depressed, and frightened for her and her son’s safety conditions. The mother’s frown represents the downfall of the abuse.

In the third stanza it deals with the realization of the father’s abuse. The first two lines of this stanza states, “The hand that held my wrist / Was battered on one knuckle”. The father is hanging on so tight to his son’s wrist because he does not want to let him go. In my opinion, when it says “‘the’ hand,” I believe that that is the hand that the father uses to hit and abuse his child with. The father’s knuckle was “battered”. According to dictionary.com, in this stanza, battered means to be damaged by beating something. Also, we can tell that the boy loves his father, but also resents him. He pays attention to every little detail about his father and how his attitude affects the household. The father and son have what it seems to be a fun, joyful relationship, but in reality, when digging deeper into the poem, realize that its violent: “At every step you missed / My right ear scraped a buckle”. According to shmoop.com, everything that the father does when the “waltz” is unaware to him such as scraping his son’s ear. However, another could interpret that the father did notice, but was not going to show any emotion. He wanted to be seen as a tough human being who could endure anything. Ironically, the belt buckle can relate to how in society today fathers and even grandfathers use their belts to discipline their children for what they have done wrong. They do this to teach them a lesson. Reading the line “My right ear scraped a buckle,” one can take in mind that the little boy is short, but he is only tall enough to reach his father’s waistline.

In the fourth stanza, the poet uses images to help the reader concentrate on what is happening. The speaker does this to paint a picture of a broken family that slowly starts to begin a path to healing. By mentioning the word “time”, the speaker suggests that “beating” time means that the father is finally realizing that physically abusing his child has to come to a stop. He has to get better at controlling his emotions. Soon, life will be over, and he comes to terms that he wouldn’t be able to change the ways he acted and tormented his son. He realized his son had no childhood due to him always abusing him and not letting him outside the house to hang out with friends. The line, “You beat time on my head,” also means that the father was beating his son to make him more mature and to be able to stand head strong. Then the speaker ends saying, “Then waltzed me off to bed / Still clinging on your shirt”. The first part of this states that the father is finally done physically abusing his son. However, the last line says, “But I hung on like death,” these lines can both mean that even if the son don’t like what his father did to him his whole childhood, he is still going to be there beside him because he loves and cares for him.

The main themes of the poem that gives off the tone are chaos and violence. The chaos is caused by the father beating his son while romping around knocking pans off of the kitchen shelves the theme of violence came in to play when the poet said, “Such waltzing was not easy” meaning that it was hard to overlook what was going on. Nothing was going to end well, so the boy kept being affected by the power hi alcoholic father had over him.

Roethke’s use of tone in the poem, “My Papa’s Waltz,” is used to subtly convey how the speaker felt dissatisfied with his father’s behavior. But, in the need the father realizes to turn his life around the next day and become a better father figure. Fang bobby wrote, “’My Papa’s Waltz’ was used to regress into areas of the psyche where the powerful thoughts and feelings of the child-the raw materials and driving power of our later lives-remain under the layers of rationale and of civilized purpose.” Reading this reminded me that even through the tough times God has aa purpose for it; not to hurt us, but to help u

The bond between a parent and a child is not only one of the strongest, but, it also has the ability to be the most complicated. This intricate bond is exhibited in both “Medusa”, written by Sylvia Plath, as well as Theodore Roethke’s poem, “My Papa’s Waltz.” These two poems are written in first person point view about a child’s feelings towards a far from perfect parent. While both of these poems are about a child’s view on the complex relationship they share with their parent, the form, tone, intent, and symbols in which they are written could not be more contrasting.

Two of many contrasting elements between these poems are the form in which they are structured, and the symbols used in the poems. “My Papa’s Waltz” is written in iambic trimeter and is made up of four stanzas; with each stanza consisting of four lines. The rhyme scheme this poem follows is ABAB which gives the poem a very melodic feeling. The musicality imbedded in the form of this poem is fitting seeing as the poem is written about a father and son waltzing together. On the contrary, Plath wrote “Medusa” as a free verse with no rhyme or consistent meter. This structure contributes to the anger Plath was surely feeling while writing it and the fact that she did not have any desire for the poem to flow or sound appealing. Though the form in these poems are on opposite sides of the spectrum, they both contribute to the overall tone and effect of the poem. The symbols used by Roethke and Plath in their poems also differ greatly. The waltz Roethke describes in “My Papa’s Waltz” is not only a literal dance but is also an extended metaphor for the speaker’s unsteady relationship with his father. At times, the waltz as well as their relationship was so enjoyable that, when the time came for it to end, the speaker was “still clinging to [his father’s] shirt” (line 16). However, at other times, “such waltzing was not easy” (line 4) and the child even got physically injured due to “missed” (line 11) steps. In contrast, Plath uses the Greek mythology Medusa to symbolize her mother as a person. She describes her mother as a creature who “hiss[es]” (line 39) and contains “eely tentacles” (line 40) and by comparing her mother to Medusa, Plath is insinuating that her mother is no longer a human in her eyes, but rather a monster. Again, Plath dehumanizes her mother in order to put distance between them and, in the end, Plath writes: “There is nothing between us” (line 41).

Another great dissimilarity between “My Papa’s Waltz” and “Medusa” is that they bear two completely different tones. In his poem, “My Papa’s Waltz”, Roethke’s tone—specifically directed at his father—is eager and devoted. Although his father is staggeringly drunk during the waltz, Roethke still “hung on like death” (line 3) because he would rather risk getting his “right ear scraped” (line 12) than let go of sharing this moment with his father. Roethke’s tone suggests that, despite his father’s faults, he will continue to remain an attached and devoted son. Roethke also integrates a somewhat playful tone into his poem. He will clearly waltz and “romp until the pans / Slid from the kitchen shelf” (lines 8-9) with his father under any circumstance and be happy to do so. Contrarily, in her vehement poem, “Medusa”, Plath’s tone is incredibly harsh, detached, and dark. Throughout this poem, Plath uses this harsh and detached tone to reiterate her wish to sever the link between her and her mother. She writes as if the umbilical cord that attached her to her mother before birth is still intact, “in a state of miraculous repair” (line 15), and for all intents and purposes unable to be severed. This seems to anger Plath and by the end of her poem, she uses her dark and detached tone to strip her mother of any and all human characteristics. All that is left is a “ghastly” (line 36) and inhuman creature whose only ability to communicate is to “hiss at [her] sins” (line 39). Plath’s tone in this poem shows that if she cannot fully cut the ties that bind her to her mother, she will find other—perhaps darker—ways to detach herself. Through their contrasting tones, both Roethke and Plath were able to convey their true feelings towards their parents, their parent’s faults, and how they were affected by them.

Although the subject of these two poems are the particulars of a difficult child-parent relationship, the feelings and intent behind each poem are completely different. On one hand, there is “My Papa’s Waltz” which, on its surface, describes a lighthearted, late-night dance in the kitchen between a father and son. However, the deeper meaning of the poem suggests that the speaker, Roethke, has conflicted feelings towards his father. For example, Roethke suggests that his father has an issue with alcohol because he drinks enough to where his breath “could make a small boy dizzy” (line 2) and it is clear that this unsettles him. He also eludes to his father’s capability of violence when he describes his how father’s “hand that held [his] wrist / Was battered on one knuckle” (lines 9-10) and how he “beat time on [his] head” (line 10). Although Roethke never explicitly states that his father is violent or an alcoholic, there are several moments in the poem that suggest otherwise. Through all of this, the son still longs to dance with and remain attached to his due to the unconditional love that comes with the bond between a parent and child. Plath, on the other hand, is not so willing to forgive her mother’s indiscretions. In “Medusa”, Plath expresses how her mother was incredibly overbearing and because of this, she developed a feeling of resentment and borderline loathing towards her mother. She depicts her mother as a suffocating figure who is constantly “squeezing the breath from her” (line 28) until she could “draw no breath” (line 29). No matter how hard Plath tries to escape her mother’s overbearing influence, it is “always there, / Tremulous breath at the end of [her] line” (lines 16-17). It is apparent that Plath immensely wants to break free of her mother’s chains in order to truly become her own independent person. Whilst both of these poems are about a complex child-parent relationship and the feelings that come along with it, both writers portray their own personal relationship in completely different ways.

“My Papa’s Waltz” and “Medusa” convey that, though the bond between a parent and a child is very strong, it is also incredibly complicated. In his poem, Roethke displays that, despite his father’s flaws and issues, he will never be able to shake the attachment he has to him. Contrarily, in her poem, Plath expresses her deep desire to sever the ties between her and her mother because of her flaws and issues. All in all, both Roethke and Plath use contrasting form, tone, intent, and symbols in their poem to describe the extraordinarily complex relationship they shared with their imperfect parent.

My Papa’s Waltz by Theodore Roethke was published in 1942. The poem has a simple rhyme scheme. At first read, it is easy to assume that this little boy is commenting on dancing around with his dad after his father has been drinking. However, depending on the reader, this poem can be seen as a metaphor for the boy being abused by his father. For instance, the word “Waltz” can be used as a symbol, perhaps it could be interchangeable with abuse. As you read you can see words and phrases that have a little bit of a violent feel to them, for example, one line says, “You beat time on my head/With a palm caked hard by dirt.” These two lines of the poem can be interpreted as a reference to an actual beating that the boy endured from his father (13-14).

This poem can easily be seen as a conflict in itself because it can be read two different ways. Another line says, “My mother’s countenance/ Could not unfrown itself”(7-8). These two lines refer to his mother’s facial expression when the boy and his father are waltzing. She is frowning, which is an indication that she is not happy with whatever is transpiring between the two of them. As you read those lines it seems that the mother is just standing there watching what is happening to her little boy, and if the boy is being abused by his father, the mother does not do anything to stop it. This brings up a conflict all of its own.

It’s easy to argue that if she doesn’t like what is going on, then why doesn’t she do anything to stop it, but it is also easy to say maybe she is scared because this man has been drinking and making a lot of ruckus which can be dangerous. This danger is proven by the line that says, “At every step you missed/My right ear scraped a buckle”(11-12). By these lines, you can see that there is an element of violence in this so-called “waltz” between father and son. This poem is clearly about a little boy being abused by his father, who was a drunk, and the mother was too frightened to do anything about it. The father exhibits some form of dominance over the two of them. That explains why the mother never seems to do anything about it because maybe, she is worried if she does it will only get worse.

Poems give the opportunity to writers to show a message in a short format. Unlike short stories and plays, writers have the capability to design a stanza structure in any way they feel that will have an effect on them and/or the readers. Poems have a connection with song writing, they are nearly always rhythmical, and have some sort of figurative language such as using similes or metaphors. Theodore Roethke, an American poet, is recognized by his poetry by using natural imagery, and introspection. In 1948, Roethke wrote a poem speaking about a memory with his father when he was a young boy. Using literary devices enabled Roethke to present his emotions and help readers understand a more profound meaning. Theodore Roethke wrote My Papa’s Waltz to show that young children are optimistic about life however, they are observant and can understand the difficult situations they are exposed to as they grow older.

Symbolism is used through each stanza to signify ideas and sometimes used to give an entirely different meaning that is much deeper and significant. A child is destined to feel happiness and comfortable wherever that may be. Their mind gears towards positive images, in things they find enjoyment in even when those positive images hide a dark side to them. In the first stanza of My Papa’s Waltz, Roethke describes a moment that would occur when he and his father would be waltzing around, “The whiskey on your breath could make a small boy dizzy; but I hung on like death” (Lines 1-3). Roethke specifically decided to mention the smell of whiskey and associates with the word “death” to symbolize the effect it had on him as he grew older to understand circumstance his father was in. It is evident Roethke knew his father was intoxicated and knew it affected his physical movement. Patty Wipfler is the founder of a parenting blog that shows the effects shocking events have that children are exposed to. Wipfler goes on speaking about the different ways children react when they are confronted with situations they don’t fully understand, “It is not helpful for very young children to know all the details of what has happened. They can’t digest violent behavior and can become terrified by exposure to the graphic images and the feelings of horror and drama that we attach to the details.” Roethke decision to mention the smell of whiskey and hanging on to his father “like death” symbolizes the fear and love he had for his father. Of course, at a young age he doesn’t understand why his father does this to himself but can understand that his actions have a negative impact.