(NEW CRITICISM) The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner by Randall Jarrell

THEORY

NEW CRITICISM

-The methodology of finding meaning is clear cut.

-The tools are unique to literary analysis.

-Its meaning resides in text-not in reader, author or world.

TITLE | AUTHOR

THE DEATH OF THE BALL TURRET GUNNER BY RANDALL JARRELL

POEM

From my mother's sleep I fell into the State,

And I hunched in its belly till my wet fur froze.

Six miles from earth, loosed from its dream of life,

I woke to black flak and the nightmare fighters.

When I died they washed me out of the turret with a hose.

ANALYSIS

The poem has deeper meaning behind the texts but theoretically speaking, the author is just describing the things that happened to him from his mother's sleep.