A Nagging Question...

Tonight is the last night of my Modern British Poetry class, so I’m just gonna jump into things right off by posing a question that has been nagging me all semester:  Can my, or for that matter, anyone’s interpretations of works of poetry really be wrong?  I’ve seen some of my classmates post that they disagree with my or others’ responses to poems (which I’m almost totally fine with), and I myself have thought at times when reading others’ interpretations, I don’t really think that’s what this poem is saying.  But given the subjectivity of poetry, especially modern and postmodern poetry that tends to be obscure and unclear for several different purposes, can someone’s interpretation, given that it’s an interpretation within the realm of possibility, be wrong?  In my mind I think, Well, the poet obviously had a meaning in mind when he/she wrote the poem, so really, it seems that there can only be one possible meaning and we’re just giving our best guess as to what it is.  But then I think, What if the poet has a meaning in mind but also leaves open the possibility for other interpretations?  And then I wonder if the writer’s intention can even be considered in this postmodern culture, and instead we’re just destined to be left with this subjective lump of words that can mean different things at different times.  Perhaps the writer has intention, but then the language takes over and becomes a life unto itself.  To be sure, the way people today interpret “Hawk Roosting” could possibly be somewhat different than the way people interpreted it in the time when it was first published.

Unfortunately, this is still where I am; I have no good answers for any of these questions.  I just keep nervously offering up my own views on the poems we read, hoping against all odds that my responses aren’t too lame or too far out there.  Thankfully, my classmates have been gentle with me, and I have really learned a lot from their responses.  I have also enjoyed learning about the lives and writings of these poets, and ironically enough, I have enjoyed reading and thinking about each poem.  It’s nice to know that I may struggle and toil to understand what a poem is saying, but I still have no problem appreciating the beauty or complexity of the language… and that’s something.