How+to+Apply+New+Criticism+to+Poetry

[|"I WANDERED LONELY AS A CLOUD"]- William Wordsworth
I WANDERED lonely as a cloud That floats on high o'er vales and hills, When all at once I saw a crowd, A host, of golden daffodils; Beside the lake, beneath the trees, Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine And twinkle on the milky way, They stretched in never-ending line Along the margin of a bay: Ten thousand saw I at a glance, Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they Out-did the sparkling waves in glee: A poet could not but be gay, In such a jocund company: I gazed--and gazed--but little thought What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie In vacant or in pensive mood, They flash upon that inward eye Which is the bliss of solitude; And then my heart with pleasure fills, And dances with the daffodils.

====When applying the New Critical approach to a poem, you must read the poem again using the close reading method where you read each line of the poem carefully analyzing each line. Then using the questions below, analyze the poem with the New Critical appeal.====

A few questions to answer when analyzing the poem:


 * 1) Does the poem maintain an aesthetic distance?
 * 2) Does the poem avoid the intentional fallacy?
 * 3) Does the poem avoid the affective fallacy?
 * 4) Does the poem avoid history?
 * 5) Does the poem avoid committing the "Heresy of Paraphrase"?
 * 6) Does the poem identify a single, important idea in the poem?
 * 7) Does the poem consider "organic unity", in regards to tension created and resolved in the end of the poem?
 * 8) Does the poem make an aesthetic judgment (having value in regards to art)?
 * 9) Does the poem emphasize poetic technique (metaphor, symbol, etc.)?

Using the questions we can then analyze the poem in a New Critical lens, where we can see how a poem follows the tenets of New Criticism.

New Critical approach of "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud" by William Wordsworth-

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 * 1) Does the poem maintain an aesthetic distance?- We can see that on lines 1-2 the narrator provides an aesthetic distance where the narrator was viewing the scene from the sky where the narrator was floating over the clouds.
 * 1) Does the poem avoid the intentional fallacy?- The entire poem is seen to have avoided the intentional fallacy where the narrator does not provide some conclusion of some sort other than showing that the poem is clearly seen as a recollection of a memory seen through a dream.
 * 1) Does the poem avoid the affective fallacy?- The entire poem is seen to have avoided the affective fallacy where the narrator does not provide an emotion that is felt throughout the poem.
 * 1) Does the poem avoid history?- The entire poem is seen to have not provide an historical context, but the narrator displays the poem in a recollective state as if we were there with the narrator at the time of the recollection of his memory.
 * 1) Does the poem avoid committing the "Heresy of Paraphrase"?- The narrator does not paraphrase the entire experience and provides the reader with the complete detail as if the narrator was writing it out during the recollection.
 * 1) Does the poem identify a single, important idea in the poem?- The poem creates the single, important idea that the smallest pleasures in life, even the most minute, can help you in the most dire and stressful situations.
 * 1) Does the poem consider "organic unity", in regards to tension created and resolved in the end of the poem?- The poem creates an environment of a dire and stressful situation then resolves this tension by recollecting a positive experience encountered by the narrator.
 * 1) Does the poem make an aesthetic judgment (having value in regards to art)?- The poem provides an aesthetic judgment where the field of daffodils causes a artful moment in the poem where the narrator was captivated by the scene which creates a valuable moment that was cherished by the narrator.
 * 1) Does the poem emphasize poetic technique (metaphor, symbol, etc.)?- The entire poem is a metaphor for the value of the experience is helpful to resolve tension in the most stressful of times where one can see that a small positive encounter can help one to think positively and resolve stress.