due to the existence of different criticism criteria in different eras, the critics have applied different and sometimes opposing methods in literary criticism. the present article studies the popular methods of literary criticism and the evolution of one special method which has been called preference in some era and comparison in some other era.

CRITICISM as an instinctive reaction to the performance of poetry is as old as song,” writes George Kennedy in beginning theCambridge History of Literary Criticism, and Kenneth Dover reminds readers of the Frogs that “in pre-literate cultures the composition of songs is a process in which discussion and criticism, often passionate, play an important part—and inevitably so, because aesthetic rea...