Jessamie c.

Balili Bsed 301

New criticism is one of several ways of looking and analyzing literature. In

this lesson new criticism is a name applied to a varied and extremely energetic
effort among Anglo-American writers to focus critical attention on literature itself.
It is the work of art relating incorporating Formalism examines the relationships
between a text’s ideas and its form, between what a text says and the way it says.
New critics “may find tension, irony, or paradox in this relation, but they usually
resolve it into unity and coherence of meaning. New criticism is a powerful tool
for those of us that have problems understanding a work of literature. NC
formulated a method of reading, a simple formula that will help us unlock the
meaning of a text. New criticism era (1940-1960) -It appeared as a reaction
toward Biographical and Traditional Historical criticism, which was focused on
extra-text materials, such as the biography of the author. There is new criticism
into 2 ways one of this is as a literary theory and as a way to reading text. The
Intentional fallacy is a term used in 20th-century literary criticism to describe the
problem inherent in trying to judge a work of art by assuming the intent or
purpose of the artist who created it. Affective fallacy according to the followers of
New Criticism, the misconception that arises from judging a poem by the
emotional effect that it produces in the reader. The concept of affective fallacy is
a direct attack on impressionistic criticism, which argues that the reader’s
response to a poem is the ultimate indication of its value. Close reading is the only
way can know if a given author’s intention or a given reader’s interpretation
which actually represent the true meaning is by carefully examined. For NC, the
complexity of a text is created by the multiple and often conflicting meaning in it.
According to new criticism we should judge books the same way. Rather than
worrying about the author’s background or our own reaction to a book, we
should evaluate work based only on the text itself. Since we’re only dealing with
the text, we’d be doing what’s called a close reading, which requires taking apart
a text and looking at its individual elements, such as theme, setting, plot and
structure.
In focusing the text itself, new critics intentionally ignore the author and
the reader. According to intentional fallacy, it’s impossible to determine an
author’s reason for writing a text without directly asking him or her. And even if
we did determine the author’s intentions, they don’t matter because the text
itself carries its own value. So, even if were reading a book by a renowned author
like Shakespeare, we should let the author’s reputation taint our evaluation of the
text. Similarly, affective fallacy claims that we shouldn’t waste time thinking about
the effect a text may have a reader.
Jessamie c. Balili Bsed 301

The hollow men

By T.S. Eliot

We are the hollow men

We are the stuffed men
Leaning together
Headpiece filled with straw. Alas!
Our dried voices, when
We whisper together
Are quiet and meaningless
As wind in dry grass
Or rats’ feet over broken glass
In our dry cellar
Shape without form, shade without colour,
Paralyzed force, gesture without motion;
Those who have crossed
With direct eyes, to death’s other kingdom
Remember us- if at all- not as lost
Violent souls, but only
As the hollow men
The stuffed men.
Eyes I dare not meet in dreams,
In deaths dream kingdom,
These do not appear,
There, the eyes are,
Sunlight on a broken column,
There, s a tree swinging And voices are,
In the wind's singing,
More distant and more solemn,
Than a fading star.
Let me be no nearer ,
In death's dream kingdom,
Let me also wear,
Such deliberate disguises,
 Rat's coat, crowskin, crossed staves,,
In a field,
Behaving as the wind behaves,
No nearer,—
Not that final meeting
In the twilight kingdom,
III This is the dead land,
This is cactus land ,
Here the stone images ,
Are raised, here they receive,
The supplication of a dead man's hand,
Under the twinkle of a fading star.
Is it like this,
In death's other kingdom,
Waking alone,
At the hour when we are ,
Trembling with tenderness ,
Lips that would kiss ,
Form prayers to broken stone.
IV The eyes are not here,
There are no eyes here,
In this valley of dying stars,
In this hollow valley,
This broken jaw of our lost kingdoms,
In this last of meeting places ,
We grope together ,
And avoid speech.
Gathered on this beach of the tumid river ,
Sightless, unless ,
The eyes reappear ,
As the perpetual star,
Multifoliate rose,
Of death's twilight kingdom ,
The hope only,
Of empty men.
Here we go round the prickly pear,
Prickly pear prickly pear ,
Here we go round the prickly pear,
At five o'clock in the morning.
Between the idea,
And the reality ,
Between the motion,
And the act ,
Falls the Shadow ,
For Thine is the Kingdom ,
Between the conception
And the creation ,
Between the emotion ,
And the response,
Falls the Shadow,
Life is very long,
Between the desire,
And the spasm,
Between the potency,
And the existence,
Between the essence ,
And the descent ,
Falls the Shadow,
For Thine is the Kingdom,
For Thine is,
Life is,
For Thine is the,
This is the way the world ends,
This is the way the world ends,
This is the way the world ends,
Not with a bang but a whimper.
Jessamie c. Balili Bsed 301

The poet is the view that we are soulless. Our actions and deeds are hollow.
Our effects are vain like running of rats or rustling of grass. We have formless
shapes. We do not have the real spirit and enthusiasm. The poem is a lamenting
note on modern man's soulless life. In this poem, the poet condemns the spiritual
emptiness of modem man. We are just hollow and stuffed men. Almighty God
created everything for man. He created man to rule over this world. Man is sent
in this world to get knowledge, about God and universe, to pray to God and to
serve the human beings. If man does not recognize himself, he cannot fulfill the
object of his creation. Life without knowledge, wisdom and love is worthless. In
these lines,, the poet points out such type of deficiencies. The poet says the 'we
do not have knowledge and wisdom. Therefore, we are worthless men. We are
stuffed men like puppets or dolls. We try to follow one another. We do not have
knowledge and wisdom to lead others. Alas! We do not have ability to listen to
realities of life. We have nothing to say because we know go thing.
We have no ability to listen to the good things and to convey valuable thoughts.
We have no form and no color. We have force but we do not know how to male
its best use. Therefore, we have paralyzed force. We do not know anything good.
We do not know how to learn and how to convey, the poet condemns the
spiritual emptiness of modern man. He says that we are pillow, empty men. Our
efforts are fruitless like the running of rats or rustling grass. We have formless
shapes. The poet talks the dead persons. It is also talks about wants ignorance
and dullness. . The poet says that those who have already departed from this life
do not know of our being frustrated or not. We seem to be only puppets made of
straw. We have no ambition in our life. We are not anxious to get something. We
have no goals to reach there. We are blind to the truth. We like to follow others.
We do not like to get knowledge and to become a guiding star for other people.