ENGLISH POETRY

ENGLISH POETRY. 204214029 Kinanthi Raras.

Formalism New Criticism. 01.

Formalism New Criticism. New criticism is a literary theory that is useful for analyzing a literary work, this theory dominated literary criticism in America at that time. It has a formal element to identify the theme of the poem. New Criticism emerged as a form of formalist movement undertaken to criticize American literature in the 20th century. New Criticism was influenced by nineteenth-century German scholarship..

Formalism New Criticism. The reason for the emergence of the New Criticism is because the external approach perceived by formalists tends to distract from the meaning of the literary work and actually eliminates the aesthetic element in the literary work itself. This can be accomplished by making the text the sole source of information in their interpretation (self-referential), preventing readers from associating the meaning of a literary work with its external parts..

Ballad of Birmingham. 02.

SUMMARY 1. The first stanza establishes that the poem is about a discussion between one young girl and her mother. The second stanza it is stated that the mother does not allow her child to go downtown. In the third and fourth stanzas , the girl is still trying to persuade her mother to let her go downtown to join the freedom march. but her mother still wouldn't let her go and told her to go to church to sing praises to God..

In stanzas five and six , a mother's love is emphasized. By trying to send her child to the safest and best place according to her mother. Until the end of the poet , according to her mother, the safest place, which is church, became the source of the explosion sound that her mother heard..

Words to create Images. Violence. guns and jails (stanza 2 line 3), explosion (stanza 7 line 1), guns will fire (stanza 4 line 2)..

Figurative Language. Imagery. Assonance.

Irony in poetry is conveyed using situational irony.

The Tone. the speaker conveys the tone in the poem by presenting the mother figure as a person who has high sympathy and concern for the safety of her daughter..

Topic to Discuss Further. The influence of symbols on the beauty of the poem "Ballad of Birmingham".

Thank You.