New Criticism Analysis of My Papa’s Waltz :: Literary Analysis

New Criticism attracts many readers to its methodologies by enticing them with clearly laid out steps to follow in pasture to criticize any work of literature. It dismisses the use of all outside sources, asserting that the only way to truly contemplate a poem efficiently is to stress purely on the vocalizes in the poem. For this interpretation I followed all the steps necessary in order to properly analyze the poem. I came to a consensus on both the tension, and the resolving of it. A poems diction plays a fundamental role in analyzing a poem, considering the text is all one(a) needs in order to discover the convey. My Papas Waltz is a fairly short poem, but the words have major impact. The word whiskey (Line 1) implies that the father is a drunk, and this makes the boy dizzy, (Line 2) or in other words, it sickens him. The poem claims the boy is small, making him sound fragile, playing into the next few lines of the poem. shoemakers last (Line 3) is a negative connot ation, along with battered (Line 10), beat (Line 13), and caked hard (Line 14). Romped (Line 5) has a positive denotation suggesting harmless roughhousing. The word countenance (Line 7) does not flow at bottom the stanza, sounding sharp and negative, paralleling the mothers stern disapproval. Hung (Line 3) is past tense, therefore the poem is a reflection of an earlier time. Waltzed (Line 15) takes on a different meaning beyond the dance, making it a synonym for taking someone somewhere. Understanding the words of a poem was the first step in order to analyze My Papas Waltz using this methodology. Not only the words, but the figures of speech and other such elements are important to analyzing the poem. Alliteration is seen throughout the completed poem, as in lines one through four, and seven through eight. The alliteration in one through four (whisky, waltzing, was) flows nicely, contrasting to the negativity of the first stanza, bandage seven through eight (countenanc e, could) sound unpleasing to the ear, emphasizing the mothers disapproval. The imagery of the father beating time on the childs head with his palm sounds harmful, as well as the image of the fathers bruised hands holding the childs wrists. It portrays the dad as having an crowning(prenominal) power over the child, instead of holding his hands, he grabs his wrists.