In addition to its function as a statement of attitude towards poetry, The New Criticism lays out a project for the technical analysis of poetry (an exposition that is developed through analysis of key terms in the criticism of T. S. Eliot, I. A. Richards, William Empson, Yvor Winters, and the "semasiologist," Charles W. Morris). These local contests are fascinating to watch, but we must here confine ourselves to the general thesis that grows out of this dialectical interchange. (p. 130)

[Ransom's] key terms are "structure" and "texture." If structure is the warp, then texture is the woof. Since the terms are used not positively, but dialectically, they do not name two different "things," but a relationship. Hence, what is "structure" in one linguistic situation may be "texture" in another, and vice versa. Usually, a dialectic of this sort treats the details of a work as consistent with some...