Perrine Poetry

This reading brought up thoughts about poetry that have never crossed my mind.  I noticed that, like our class, few people had the same interpretation of Emily Dickinson's poem.  He gives very convincing evidence supporting the fact that it is truly written about a sunset.  He looks so much deeper into each individual word of a poem or work then I ever have.  I noticed that under the title of this piece, Perrine says "To what extent can teachers demand 'correct' interpretations of poetry?  Are there no incorrect answers?"  This gave me the impression that he would be supporting the fact that different words can mean something separate to any one individual.  However, his elaboration contradicts what I first thought.  I believe he goes on to state that differing interpretations are acceptable, so long as they can be applied and associated with almost every detail of the poem.

I never would have guessed that Melville's poem was about stars and not a marching army!  But, after reading the rest of Perrine's explanation, it all becomes clear.  It's a little unsettling.  It makes me wonder how many other poems and works I've missed the meaning of.  But isn't poetry SUPPOSED to be interpreted differently so that each person can find a way to connect to it?  In reading this and suddenly agreeing with every explanation of Perrine, am I forfeiting my personal opinion and interpretation because someone made me feel like I was wrong?  The overall message I took from this reading is that each word, no matter the kind, has so much power.  Each word has the power to change what the reader thinks the poem is about.  It's shown me that I need to be much more careful and picky in the words and adjectives that I choose if I want to get my point across.