Name : Rahsiwi Bitristan Pamungkas

NIM : 19.03.52.0005

THE NEW CRITICISM :

CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF “MY PAPA’S WALTZ” POEM

Introduction

New Criticism is an Anglo-American literary criticism which study or

analyze a poem by only the text and must not be influenced by either writer or
reader’s feeling, intention, or historical context. The New Criticism a philosophy of
literary interpretation that stresses the importance of studying literary texts as
complete works of art in themselves (Maniyar & Jamadar 2016). This theory
dominated teaching and scholarship between from the early 1930s to the 1960s, the
name “New Criticism” emerged when John Crowe Ransom published his book
entitled The New Criticism in 1941. In applying New Criticism, an analyst should
dismiss the author’s feeling or intention (Intentional Fallacy) and should not seek
the historical or social background of the poem to find it’s meaning (Affectuve
Fallacy). Through this essay, the author is going to analyze My Papa’s Waltz (1942)
poem by Theodor Rothke.

Critical Analysis

In 1942, an American poet called Theodor Rothke published his poem

entitled “My Papa’s Waltz”. This poem tells about a father who beats his son to
give him a lesson, but even though the father keeps beating him, the son still
clinging to his father like nothing happens. Rothke writes this poem from the
perspective of a young boy who loves his father so much that he does not care
whether the father is abusive or not.

Upon a close reading of “My Papa’s Waltz”, it is clear that paradox rules
every aspect of the poem. The boy knows that his father is a heavy drinking person
that his breath itself smells like liquor and could make him dizzy, but instead of
leaving him, he keeps clinging to him or as in the poem stated “But I hung on like
death”. Rothke uses a simile to describe that the boy clinging to his father like the
death clinging to the living. The paradox in the first stanza gives readers insight that
the boy has unconditional love toward his father.

Continuing the first, the author described more about the abusive father
through the sentence “We romped until the pans slid from the kitchen shelf”. By
using the word “romp”, Rothke implied that the father enjoys beating his son and
not having a sense of guilt. While the father happily beating his son, the mother
could not do anything as she was frozen by the view. Rothke shows the readers that
the father is the man of the house.

Deeper, like waltzing, the father hand held his boy's wrist. On one knuckle
of his father’s was battered, they go on with waltzing but every step the father
missed, the boy right ear scraped a buckle. Rothke implies that even the father is
the one who did the mistake, he blames it on his boy and beats him. From this, the
readers, looking at the events that happened, can see that the father could not be
considered as a father.

Another paradox found in the last stanza where Rothke writes “You beat
time on my head Then waltzed me off to bed”, as stated, the father beats his son and
then leaves him off to bed, but the son still clinging to his shirt. As readers can see
that the father beats his son, again and again, the boy still stays with his abusive
father.

Rothke uses the word “Waltz” as a symbol in this poem, the meaning of this
word is a dance in which two people dance together to a regular rhythm, one person
leads and the other person follows. It symbolizes the father who is leading and his
boy who keeps clinging to his father, following him even though the boy has beaten
many times. In the “Waltz” when the lead missed a step, the follower of course did
the same mistake and it is the lead’s fault, not the follower's. However, in this poem,
when the father (as the lead) who did the mistake, he blames it on the boy (as the
follower). Moving to the meter, intonation, and rhythm or called as Prosody, this
poem used an Accentual Prosody where the number of the accents or stresses
remains constant at two but the number of syllables in each line does not remain
constant.

Conclusion

My Papa’s Waltz poem by Theodor Rothke tells about an abusive father

who is also a heavy drinker beats his son again and again, but the son still clinging
to him like death clinging to the living. This poem shows a bond between father and
son where the father has no love but the son has a pure love toward his father. Just
like the Waltz, the boy still follows his father who leads him even though the father
did many mistakes and blames it on him.

Reference

I.
Edward,Ann. Simile and Metaphor - What’s the Difference ?.
https://www.grammarly.com/blog/whats-the-difference-between-a-simile-
and-a-metaphor/ (Accessed on 14 October 2020).
II.
Prosody. https://literarydevices.net/prosody/ (Accessed on 15 October
2020).
III.
Abd Al Janabi, Hazem Kamel, Thamir Rasyid Shayyal Az Zubaidy, Haider
Hussein Katea. 2020. The Impact of The Anglo-American School of New
Criticism on Cleanth Brooks’ The Well-Wrought Urn. Journal of
Innovation, Creativity, and Change, 18(1), 508-509.
IV.
Maniyar, A.K, Nasreen Banu Jamadar. 2016. A Note on The New
Criticism. Global English-Oriented Research Journal, 2(2), 129-130.