Interpreting Poetry

Poetry has always personally been a difficult subject to properly comprehend for me.  The various ways a poem can be interpreted have often confused me.  But I have generally believed that poetry was meant to be understood by the reader, meaning their thoughts are the correct ones for them.  Perrine suggests that only a limited amount of meanings are correct, and even fewer are actually "correct".  It intrigued me how scientific he made poetry.  His explanation of what is the correct meaning put the process in very easy and simple terms.  I can understand his idea and even agree a little with some of his thoughts, but overall I don't agree with his system of sorting out the correct interpretations.  Ideally his process would work for every poem, but I believe this does not necessarily work.  Some poems are meant to be open to interpretation, bringing comfort to the reader in the form of whatever understanding they have.

One area of his article that I agreed with and found interest in was his thoughts on symbols.  I believe that while their could be multiple thoughts on a symbol, some are too rigid to be disputed.  The "White Whale", for example, is certainly the symbol of something that has eluded someone for a very long time.  The symbol can be applied to experiences from everyday life, as they go beyond the context of the poem.  This is how poetry finds its appeal, as the symbols apply to the reader experiences in life.  I reader can often identify with something within the context of the poem.  The metaphor is something often mistaken for the symbol.  A metaphor transcends its literal meaning.  It is meant to pull something else not related to the poem into the understanding, and thus expands the poem.