A lens without a focal point

One aspect I liked about this article was when Perrine said: "but where the comments of a critic may raise the curtain on a reader's understanding of a poem, the poet's own comments drop the curtain". While I am not a poet myself I enjoy reading poetry because usually I can apply it my own life or experiences (something a good reader should do). Let's take "The Sick Rose" for example, while I might of seen this as a poem about my troubles with garden pests many other readers probably saw this a poem about lost love. I love looking through poetry through a lens and finding something, not discovering what was already there. Also I like reading other interpretations of other poetry readers because they see something that I usually don't see, however I feel like if the poet himself were to tell me what they saw in the poem then I would feel wrong in my interpretation.
Perrine really hits the nail on the nail when it comes to poetic interpretation. "Problem of Interpretation" passage does a great job of explaining how poetry can only be read within a certain area. Although I'm a fan of applying the poetry to my life, I'm glad that poetry can't be read where "anything goes" (otherwise we would spend days discussing poetry in school). Poetry is more abstract than a novel, but it is still a piece of work confined in an area. The words may be richer but they're still confined