At its simplest level An Essay on Criticism is a didactic poem. It is conducted according to a broadly argumentative structure although it also contains more than a passing touch or two of Alexander Pope's burgeoning satiric impulse. An Essay on Criticism is a poem in which a number of key words – Sense, Nature, Taste, Judgment, Genius and Wit, to name the most important – play upon each other and are used in different ways in different contexts. An Essay on Criticism is divided into three parts. According to the prefatory analytical summary, Part I deals with true Taste and Judgment in a critic, Part II deals with some of the causes of false Taste and Judgment, and Part III deals with the true conduct of Manners in a critic, concluding with a brief survey of the history of criticism.