The Perrine Article

(for some reason this was not letting me post it on my laptop...)

Let me first start off with this: I never knew there were so many different ways to interpret poems. I mean, I knew there were different ways, but it just dawned on me how I can view something one way, and someone else can have a totally different opinion. However, I don't always agree that one person has to be right and the other must then be wrong. I understand what he was saying in the passage that there are usually more correct ways to viewing poetry, but I don't think that that is always the case. I belive that there was a way the writer wrote it, but people can take from that what they want. I strongly belive that what the reader's past experiences can greatly influence what they see in the literature. And I do not think that this fact makes them incorrect in their interpretations.

But -and I'm going to contradict myself- what also really struck me was how Perrine explained the reasonsing as to why he was correct. He had and almost scientific method to proving his point. I got excited when all of his students thought the same things I did about the poems. But then as I kept on reading, I realized that what he was saying actaully did make a lot of sense. We have to think about our interpretations to fully understand what the writer was trying to convey. Sometimes- although I'll be the first to admit how difficult this is- we should do some extra work in deciphering the messages. We should look things up and read into the history of the writer in order to get a good understanding.