As one looks back over Ransom's writings on art, poetry, and criticism, the qualities which appear are not always favorable to his standing as a theorist. Though he published nearly thirty essays on these subjects … over a span of nearly forty years, he repeated himself again and again and he kept his speculations within a rather remarkably narrow range. Yet though he went over the same ground many times, he retained in his treatment a quality of amateurishness. This is partially an effect of tone, and the informality, modesty, and whimsy which suggest it are refreshing indeed. Often, though, it almost seems that he used key terms in a deliberately loose way in order to preserve the air of lightness and diffidence: as if to say to the reader, "Now don't take this too seriously. Look at the way I use science, logic, and prose—I don't take...