something i posted somewhere else -- on meaning

[addy]

Ah, the stuff literary analysis is made of

I definitely agree that poetry takes on a life and meaning of its own, as with most anything. Even in terms of of identity, who we are to other people often has little do do with our internal lives and quirks, yet it is just as much a part of "who we are" as anything else. I like personal poetry, of course, and it is indeed interesting to find out what specific thoughts or experiences led a writer to say this or that, but anyway those things are just a vehicle for poets to be able to express more universal truths. What use is a poem if other people can't read it and say "yes, I totally get that" even without knowing anything of the author? You shouldn't have to be completely in the author's head and his life to appreciate it... that's why it's a craft. That's the power of words, that they are bigger than the limits we often put on our cordoned off selves.