4. Figurative language is language that has more than,
or other than, a strictly literal meaning.
• Because of New Criticism’s belief that the literary text
can be understood primarily by understanding its form
(which is why you’ll sometimes hear it referred to as a
type of formalism), a clear understanding of the
definitions of specific formal elements is important. In
addition to some formal elements that we will discuss
later, I would like to remind you of some with which you
are likely familiar: images, symbols, metaphors,
similes, alliteration, personification, and hyperbole.
5. Figurative Language
• An image consists of a word or words that refer to an object
perceived by the senses or to sense perceptions themselves: colors,
shapes, lighting, sounds, tastes, smells, textures, temperatures, and
so on. Clouds can suggest both weather and a depressed mood.
• A symbol is an image that has both literal and figurative meaning, a
concrete universal, such as the swamp in Ernest Hemingway’s “Big,
Two-Hearted River.” The swamp is a literal swamp, but it also
“stands for,” or “figures,” something else: the emotional problems of
the protagonist.
• A metaphor is a comparison of two dissimilar objects in which the
properties of one are ascribed to the other. For example, the phrase
“my brother is a gem” is a metaphor. Obviously, it has no literal
meaning.
• To get from metaphor to simile requires one small step: add like or
as: “my brother is like a gem.”
6. Alliteration
The repetition of initial stressed, consonant sounds in a series of
words within a phrase or verse line. Alliteration need not reuse all
initial consonants; “pizza” and “place” alliterate. Example: “We
saw the sea sound sing, we heard the salt sheet tell,” from Dylan
Thomas’s “Lie Still, Sleep Becalmed.” Browse poems with
alliteration.
Hyperbole
A figure of speech composed of a striking exaggeration. For
example, see James Tate’s lines “She scorched you with her
radiance” or “He was more wronged than Job.” Hyperbole usually
carries the force of strong emotion, as in Andrew Marvell’s
description of a forlorn lover:
Personification
A figure of speech in which the poet describes an abstraction, a
thing, or a nonhuman form as if it were a person. William Blake’s
“O Rose, thou art sick!” is one example; Donne’s “Death, be not
proud” is another.
7. What single interpretation of the text best establishes its organic unity? In
other words, how do the text’s formal elements, and the multiple meanings
those elements produce, all work together to support the theme, or
overall meaning, of the work? Remember, a great work will have a theme
of universal human significance. (If the text is too long to account for all
of its formal elements, apply this question to some aspect or aspects of its
form, such as imagery, point of view, setting, or the like . . . .)
Lois Tyson says, “Given New Criticism’s focus on the single meaning of the
text and its single method of establishing that meaning, it should not be
surprising that our list of questions New Critics asked about literary texts
should consist of only one complex question:
Yet, there are questions that we can ask to reach our
ideas about the single best interpretation of the text!
8. Typical Questions by New Critics
1. How does the work use imagery to develop its own symbols? (i.e.
making a certain road stand for death by constant association)
2. What is the quality of the work's organic unity "...the working
together of all the parts to make an inseparable whole..." (Tyson
121)? In other words, does how the work is put together reflect
what it is?
3. How are the various parts of the work interconnected?
4. How do paradox, irony, ambiguity, and tension work in the text?
5. How do these parts and their collective whole contribute to or
not contribute to the aesthetic quality of the work?
6. How does the author resolve apparent contradictions within the
work?
7. What does the form of the work say about its content?
8. Is there a central or focal passage that can be said to sum up the
entirety of the work?
9. How do the rhythms and/or rhyme schemes of a poem contribute
to the meaning or effect of the piece?
9. First, Read The Poem!
• “My Papa’s Waltz” (link)
• Then look for images, symbols, metaphors,
similes, alliteration, hyperbole, personification,
paradox, irony, ambiguity, and tension.
• If you are familiar with other conventions, feel
free to note those as well. What do these figures
of speech bring to mind? What do they say about
the poem?
10. Then Read The Essay!
• Read “My Papa’s Waltz: A New Critical Approach.
(course readings; theory texts; new criticism)
• Note the images the writer uses to make his points.
• Look at your own list of figures of speech. Did you
see these? What other conventions did you see
that might reinforce or disrupt this author’s
reading of this poem?
• Do you agree with the assertion the writer makes
about the meaning of the poem? (Look at the last
line of the poem).
11. Homework
• Post #2: Post a paragraph or two outlining your own New
Critical insights about “My Papa’s Waltz.” Then write a
paragraph discussing your agreement or disagreement with
the author of the New Critical Essay. Consider thesis, the
interpretation of figurative language, and conclusion.
• Bring copies of “My Papa’s Waltz” and “My Papa’s Waltz: A
New Critical Approach” to class.
