Extremists, whether formalists of the New Criticism or of the humanist-moralist tradition, are taken to task in this attempt to combine elements of both in a more pluralistic approach to literary criticism. An analysis of a Frost poem, "Stopping by Woods", is attempted as an illustration of a kind of criticism that seeks to clarify the parts of the poem, to discover the governing principle, and to identify the shaping principle which leads the writer to be concerned with its form. Concluding remarks point out the need to consider the artist as a "maker" and a "shaper", and thus to regard analysis of form as a means of arriving at the literary appreciation which the humanist critics propose. (RL)