poetry texts, poem archive at plagiarist.com

Let's assume for a minute that this poem only has one correct meaning and any other is flat wrong. Even then you still have to consider that the one true meaning may be the one with murdering one's family. In fact, it's more probable than most that I've heard and it is the hypothesis I formed when I first read it. WCW did have some pretty morbid stuff.

I take the middle view, it IS important to understand the poets point of view, life, etc, because a poet generally will have certain intentions to his or her poem(s). Whether it is transmitted well enough depends on how vague or clear s/he writes, and the overall skill at presenting his/her ideas. However, we are all subjective at heart, at least we can all agree that we are partially so. We DO bring our own biases and understandings to a poem, and this can hardly be helped unless you're some kind of enlightened Zen monk or something. Even then they probably still have their Zen biases, haha. Anyways, we will all come away from any piece of art with our own interpretations, because we all have unique points of view. This doesn't mean we shouldn't try to understand the original intent, but I'm skeptical about our ability to always understand that intent perfectly as the artist/poet meant it.

That's why I find diverse interpretations to poems, songs, paintings, etc interesting and good. Maybe the artist meant it one way, and that's good, but how cool is it that it can be seen in a million different ways, as well?

What exactly does Danse Russe mean?