I remember feeling proud that my dad's hands were so dirty. I never knew why that was. Then waltzed me off to bed Still clinging to your shirt. It is very hard for a person to remember the events of their childhood very clearly. People tend to only remember the emotions that the events of their youth caused.
Every child hates being sent to bed.
When spending time with your father is the alternative it is even worse. For the boy this was one of those moments that a person never wants to end. He probably looks back on this memory as one of the happiest of his childhood. At first this poem seems to tell about one evening in a boy's life. Theodore Roethke made the point of the poem a little more subtle though.