monocular vision

Imagine a person wearing a monocle: the image of a bad critic with a single critical lens engaged on a work.

language system

Analyzing the poem as a language system.

grape to raisin

Don’t be the critic who makes a raisin from a grape.

scholarship or sensibility

Distinguishing between a criticism based on scholarship or one relying on sensibility.

open book critic

It’s okay to be a disagreeable critic as long you can convince the reader that your opinion may be flawed and you’re still open to being awed.

critic types

A thug critic, a theory critic, a thiswayandorthat critic.

preferred if not perfect

As a critic he knew not to expect perfect, but he knew what to prefer.