Perrine's Perspective on Poetry

"That all interpretations of a poem are equally valid is a critical heresy, but one which perennially makes its reappearance in the classroom."

For the most part, I do agree with what Perrine says about the way in which we are to interpret poetry. We cannot allow different facts to contradict each other when interpreting poetry nor can we make wild assumptions that are out of context in nature of the poem. When he said, "...though it too accounts for all the facts, it rests on too many additional assumptions. It is, as we would say, too 'farfetched,'" I couldn't help but think of Jimmy's interpretation of the Emily Dickinson poem-that it was about a washing machine. Perrine certaintly would not agree with that assumption. As for my interpretation of the Emily Dickinson poem, I was not too far off. I did conclude that the daffodils represented the sun in some way, so maybe I didn't do too bad.

At the same time, I disagree with Perrine when he says we are not to be "farfetched" in our interpretation of a poem. Everyone is going to have a different take on what a poem means. Some may have a more creative outlook on it, while other have a more literal outlook on it. As for me, I usually have a pretty literal and concrete interpretation of poetry. I literally interpreted the "fantastic sailors mingle"in the Emily Dickinson poem to be sailors sharing stories with one another. I'm going to have to work around my habit of literal interpretation. Also, as I read further into this piece, I found that Perrine said the Melville poem posed the question of the existence of God. What? I don't think I would ever be able to come up with that. I still do not even understand where he got that from to be honest. Although I may not be able to interpret poetry as confidently as Perrine is able to, I have picked up a few tips from him. I realize that I am going to need to pay more attention to word choice and diction. I never realized the Night March Poem was about stars, because I didn't closely look at the words, like "twinkling," "bright", "beaming" etc. I also need to look for symbols, and I need to be able to differentiate them from metaphors.  Lastly, I will try not to make out of context conclusions to a poem.  I think I'm ready to analyze poetry now that I know what to look for..