Keesey, Ch 2 (Introduction)

"This concern for the wholeness of the poetic object is an important characteristic of formalism, for the goal of formal analysis is to show how the various elements in the poem fit together, how the parts cohere to produce the whole, and how our understanding of the whole conditions our understanding of the parts" (77).

http://blogs.setonhill.edu/AngelaPalumbo/2009/02/could_it_be_true.html

"Indeed, as long as the poem is supposed to exist in isolation from other contexts, it is difficult to see how the formal critic can find a basis for any value scheme at all. But in practice most formalists do not really isolate the poem so completely" (Keesey 80).

Complex or simple? “The complex poem is better than the simple poem because it appeals to a greater number of our desires and aversions. And a coherent poem is better than an incoherent poem because in organizing its diverse elements, it also organizes the reader’s psyche.” (79)

"'The status of the poem as an 'object,' as something that exists independently of its creator and independently of any of its readers, is a key concept in formal theory'" (Keesey 77). Click here!

“This is the fundamental principle of formal criticism, and it leads directly to the formalist’s famous distrust of the ‘Paraphrase’ on the grounds that too many readers are inclined to confuse the poem’s paraphrasable content with its ‘meaning’…”
-From Donald Keesey’s Contexts for Criticism, Chapter 2 “Formal Criticism: Poem as Context,” page 78http://blogs.setonhill.edu/EricaGearhart/2009/02/no_more_paraphrase_okay_we_hav.html

Structure. Please help me.

http://blogs.setonhill.edu/BethanyMerryman/2009/02/structure.html

Extending Beyond Normal Realms: The Definition of a Word to a Formalist
“Such is the power of context to create connotations, overtones, implications, in brief, ‘meanings,’ beyond those cited in even the largest dictionaries. And the principle applies to all elements in the poem” (Keesey 77).
http://blogs.setonhill.edu/GretaCarroll/2009/02/extending_beyond_normal_realms.html

In Isolation

“The formalists claim to deal directly with poems and in poetic terms. They detach the poem from what they consider secondary contexts in order to concentrate on the poem itself, and they undertake to illuminate both poetic meaning and poetic value by the same kind of analysis” (Keesey 78).
http://blogs.setonhill.edu/JennaMiller/2009/02/in-isolation.html

Play the Game.
http://blogs.setonhill.edu/EllenEinsporn/2009/02/play_the_game.html

"This concept implies...that we can have access to the poem quite apart from from the mind of its creator or the circumstances of its creation" (Keesey 76).

"They (the formal critics) seem to claim no specail expertise beyond well-developed powers of observation and a sharpened sense of what to look for. And we can all play the game.

"Only chaos truly mirrors chaos."