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128 Unit 2 ■ Analyzing Comparisons and Representations John Crowe Ransom ■ Janet Waking 129 UNIT 2

Snapping Beans Guided Questions We snapped beans into the silver bowl between us Guided Questions SUGGESTED RESPONSES
(For Fay Whitt) and when a hickory leaf, still summer green, STRUCTURE TO GUIDED QUESTIONS
I snapped beans into the silver bowl skidded onto the porchfront, 7. How does the 7. Grandma’s line can be interpreted to mean
that sat on the splintering slats 45 Grandma said, last line reveal an that she trusts and anticipates the narrator’s
It’s funny how things blow loose like that.
of the porchswing between my grandma and me. 7 It’s funny how things blow loose like that. understanding? true thoughts to “blow loose” sometime in the
I was home for the weekend, 1. How do the actions future. However, it may also indicate that
5 from school, from the North, and description Grandma knows the narrator has found
of the characters
Grandma hummed “What A Friend We Have In Jesus” suggest a contrast? PRACTICE TEXT another place to live and be happy (having
as the sun rose, pushing its pink spikes “blown loose” from home).
through the slant of cornstalks,
through the fly-eyed mesh of the screen.
10 We didn’t speak until the sun overcame INTRODUCING THE TEXT
the feathered tips of the cornfield Janet Waking

and Grandma stopped humming. I could feel 2. What changed? TRM Lit Links. Consider introducing students
the soft gray of her stare What action of the John Crowe Ransom to the website Does the Dog Die, a crowd
Grandma indicates sourced website that provides emotional
against the side of my face this change?
15 when she asked, How’s school a-goin? 3. How does this THE TEXT IN CONTEXT “spoilers” about a variety of topics, including the
issue that gives the site its name. Ask students
I wanted to tell her about my classes, change create a An influential critic and educator, as well as a poet, John what motivated the creators of the site and also
the revelations by book and lecture shift in the tone of Crowe Ransom (1888–1974) played a key role in the what motivates audience members to visit the
as real as any shout of faith, the poem? development of the “New Criticism”: a literary movement site, especially regarding the death of animals
potent as a swig of strychnine. that took its name from Ransom’s 1941 book of that title. represented in media. Alternatively, you may ask
20 She reached the leather of her hand 4. What does The New Critics were poets and academics who argued that students how they or their families honor beloved
over the bowl and cupped the action of literary texts must be viewed as self-contained aesthetic pets after a pet’s passing.
the Grandma
my quivering chin; reveal about her artifacts, like sculptures or paintings. Largely avoiding
the slick smooth of her palm held my face intentions? factors such as historical context, authorial intention, or Bettmann/Getty Images
the way she held cherry tomatoes under the spigot, personal responses, these writers focused on close read- IDEAS IN THE TEXT
25 careful not to drop them, ing the poem or story itself. This formalist approach valued
and I wanted to tell her 5. How does this set tension, precision, paradox, ambiguity, and irony in litera- Death
about the nights I cried into the familiar up the contrast ture. It also asserted that a poem’s “meaning” could not be separated from the Innocence

experience of reading it (i.e., it is impossible to paraphrase or summarize a good
between the
heartsick panels of the quilt she made me, speaker’s inner poem). Ransom’s poetry reflects these aesthetic values, particularly in its irony and Loss
wishing myself home on the evening star. thoughts and its lack of sentimentality. Mourning
30 I wanted to tell her external behavior? Awakening
Departure
the evening star was a planet, Copyright (c) 2023 Bedford, Freeman & Worth Publishers. Uncorrected proofs were used with this sample chapter.

that my friends wore noserings and wrote poetry
about sex, about alcoholism, about Buddha. Distributed by Bedford, Freeman & Worth Publishers. Strictly for use with its products. Not for redistribution.
I wanted to tell her
35 how my stomach burned acidic holes
at the thought of speaking in class, 6. How does the
short sentence
speaking in an accent, speaking out of turn, response create
how I was tearing, splitting myself apart a shift? What
with the slow-simmering guilt of being happy is the shift, and
what does it
40 despite it all. reveal about the
I said, School’s fine. relationship?

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CRITICAL APPROACHES
New Criticism
As the author John Crowe Ransom was a pivotal punctuation, and rhythm. Within these elements
literary theorist in New Criticism, readers are of a poem, readers may uncover paradoxes of
well-served by interpreting his work through the meaning, ambiguity, or irony. For example, one of
formalist approach: a method of interpretation the most compelling parts of the poem is in its
based solely on a text’s inherent features. That title: the word “waking” (a gerund or present
means interpreting “the text itself” without participle) implies an active state of emerging
focusing on the author’s background or any from sleep (as Janet does in the opening stanza).
external forces that affected its creation, such But the word can also refer to the process of
as historical or cultural influences. becoming aware of something (as Janet
Formalists often focus on the features innate becomes aware of the effects of death).
to a text (or its “form”), such as precise word Additionally, to hold a wake implies the ritual of
definition and placement, line structures, viewing the body of someone who has died.

John Crowe Ransom Janet Waking 129

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