Don't H8, Appreci8

I anticipate finding myself in varying degrees of agreement and disagreement in all the authors this semester. For example, I found Eliot's definition of great artists fascinating; to paraphrase, the Greats are mediums between the present and the channel of the past. And how often do we listen to a new musician or read a new author because they are evoke parallels to one or more of their predecessors? Suddenly Eliot becomes widely applicable.

As for disagreement, I can't expect to fully appreciate a poem like Wilbur's Junk by simply closely reading it! Yes, the poem's alliteration is intricate and its structure taunts the conventional reader's eye, but Wilbur wouldn't have included references to Waldere, Hephaestus, and Wayland without intending the reader to research who they are. Once Abby and I discovered that Waldere is an epic poem, Junk became an epic poem itself—the journey of jerrybuilt things from humble origins to earning their place aside their probable gods (Hephaestus and Wayland). Close reading would have prevented such illuminating research.

Fine.

Source: https://memegenerator.net/img/instances/500x/59640945/yeah-if-you-could-just-get-to-the-point-that-would-be-great.jpg

Upon reflection and despite inconsistencies of their craft, I can't help but find it noble that the New Critics attempted to make reading a science. They were fed up with the depreciation of criticism into banal philosophy—to which Barry alludes—and tried to make a change. To abbreviate the disparaging Ransom, English may as well have called itself history—in other words, boring and staid.

Like the New Critics in their time, today we experience a similar devaluation of English as a respectable field of study; It is rather easy to see where they were coming from. Though their ideas ultimately fall short of realizing a full appreciation of a poem, at least those stuffy, intellectual white guys rejuvenated the field for debate, dissection, and study for the 20th and 21st century.