Howard Nemerov's September, The First Day Of School

The New Critics believed that someone follow a literary formula and reach only one meaning of a text. The New Critics also believe that this meaning of the text could be reached using only the text itself. Take the poem “September, The First Day of School” by Howard Nemerov, if the correct steps are followed there will be only one interpretation. This interpretation is the correct one according to the New Critics. New Criticism echoes some of the Russian Formalist ideals in Anglo-America literary analysis. New Criticism however did not develop from Russian Formalism, but the two are often paired together, Bressler the author of Literary Criticism, explains the relationship between the two theories of criticisms as having similar ideals, but

This formula involved only the text itself. There are seven steps to New Critic analysis; the first step involves looking at the language of the poem. While looking at a poem’s diction, one should be looking for words with both denotations (dictionary meanings) and connotative (implicit) meanings. (Bressler). There can be words with multiple meanings throughout the poem that will allow the reader to decipher the New Critic’s meaning of the text. In Nemerov’s poem the word selfish is paired with tears. What makes the parent’s tears selfish? The tears being cried by the parent are selfish, because they know what they want for their child, is not good for the child. The word door is also used in the first stanza; the connotative meaning attached to the door is a portal to knowledge. It is not only a physical door it is the child’s entrance into knowledge and education. In the second stanza, the word endure, is used. This is a harsh word, with a negative connotative meaning attached to it. Endure means to experience something unpleasant, and be able to withstand it. When the word is applied to children’s teachings in school, it is saying that children are going to have to learn how to handle school and the changes it