Close reading, as Paula Moya (2016) writes, may remain the "most powerful discipline-specific tool we have at our disposal" (p. 9). At a time when the work of English teachers is threatened by many factors, including political polarization and the rise of artificial intelligence (AI), close reading may be the soundest way of unifying and reinvigorating the discipline of English. In this article, the author revisits the history of close reading in order to articulate and enact pedagogical principles that represent a careful, humane, and artful version of literary reading for the twenty-first century.