Poetry interpretation article.

I found that Perrine had some valid points to his lesson on how to interpret poetry. However, there is a fundamental point that I have trouble grasping, primarily for the fact that I do not believe it to be true. Perrine stated that one must be able to find an interpretation that had no contradictions and if there were contradictions, that visualization is false or wrong. Also, Perrine stated that if there were more than one visualizations, then the one that is most correct is the one that is most "economical" (whatever that means). I disagree with both of these because I do not believe that there is one concrete way of reading and analyzing any type of poetry. I say this because it is hard to pinpoint the exact feelings and purpose the author of a poem is trying to convey without having years of practice and experience with that poet's works. For a novice, such as myself, the idea of poetry, to me at least, is to come up with an interpretation that is satisfying to the reader's imagination (or lack of). That is one of the beauties of poetry, it allows the reader to have his creativity factor into the poem. When we decide that there is one, and only one, way of reading and analyzing a poem, all of the joy is taken out of reading that poem. Secondly, what if the poet wanted you to question your own interpretation by using contradiction. That may be the purpose of the poem, make you question and think.

When reading this article, I believe that Perrine had some very beneficial advice for how to read a poem. Being the lazy person that I usually am, I would normally take words arranged in a poem at face value. I was only able to see literal meaning, which, in poetry, is almost never the correct way to view a poem. I think after reading this article, especially the section about the symbols, it would be helpful to me to open my mind to the different meanings that the words could mean. I think that when reading a poem that contains literary symbols, I would more cautiously consider the higher meaning. Perfect example: the William Blake poem that we went over in class. I had no idea what the rose or worm could have meant. My tiny and underdeveloped literary brain only had the capacity to take the words at face value rather than dig deeper into what the author intended for them to mean. From now on, I think that I will write possible ideas for what authors are trying to say onto a white board or piece of paper, just so that I can grasp the deeper meaning that the author may intend to convey. Similarly, I think that I will have to learn when symbols mean nothing more than their face value.