One way to talk about a poem is to talk about how you relate to it. How you may identify with the speaker of it, like a main character in a story or movie. Or how you share the emotions running through the poem. Or how you are sympathetic to a particular situation, event, or character in the poem because you’ve had similar experiences.
But what if you don’t relate to a particular poem in any of these ways? Or what if the way you relate to the poem is by taking a different or opposing viewpoint? What then? Do you chuck the poem aside, spit in its eye, take it out back, and smack it around a little, before burying it at the back of the bookshelf? That would be one method of readerly response. All reading, in one way or another, is call-and-response. The call is the set of words on the page, and the response is your reaction in reading them.
But here is the thing: you have the ability to relate to anything. Your imagination is as powerful as any reality you have experienced or are presently experiencing. If you have a certain response to a poem—especially an adverse one—have it. Let it run its course. Then, re-read the poem, questioning what you think you know about it in order to enter the poem on its own terms.
The Poetry Reader: An Anthology
Mark Yakich