POETRY ASSUMPTIONSReaders of poetry

POETRY ASSUMPTIONS

Readers of poetry often bring with them many related assumptions:

That a poem is to be read for its "message,"
That this message is "hidden" in the poem,
The message is to be found by treating the words as symbols which naturally do not mean what they say but stand for something else,
You have to decipher every single word to appreciate and enjoy the poem.