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Literary Criticism

This often sounds daunting, difficult, dire. But all you really have to remember is three letters:

S. I. M.

S. stands for Sounds.

I. stands for Images.

M. stands for Meanings.

Good writing relies on sound qualities. These can be rhymes: noon/spoon/balloon/moon/soon. Or they can be attempts to echo the sound of an event in the "real" world: "lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore".

Good writing is vivid, making the story take place clearly in your mind: "Between my finger and my thumb/The squat pen rests; snug as a gun."

Good writing relies on meanings - plural. Many words and sounds have more than one meaning and the good writer uses this to his advantage. The title of George Herbert's poem, The Caller is a good example: there is in the poem someone who calls; there is choler (anger); there is a priest's collar, or the iron collar of a slave.

S. I. M.

Look in any piece of writing for the Sounds, the Images, and the Meanings and you will be carrying out what we call Practical Criticism.