something i posted somewhere else -- on meaning

[Achebe]

I wrote a poem today. I was in a certain mood while writing it. I did not consciously intend for that mood to come across. I was trying to make it a "happy" poem..
But ella observed that the poem had a melancholic undertone.
And that was my state of mind when I wrote the poem. An example of where the reader finds meanings that the author intended only subconsciously.