Basically, I also agree that the "many meanings" claim can be a cover-up for lack of content or skill. On the other hand, the question of what a poem "means" doesn't usually occur to me. I figure the poem means what it says. If I find it incomprehensible, I move on to something else. I am not into explications. I read the poem, and the first thing I am interested in is whether it sounds good. If it does, I run with it. I may read it again right away if it really grabs me. But I don't try to puzzle out any meaning, because a poem is not an acrostic. One of the things that makes great poems great is that, with each new reading over the years, they reveal more and more of themselves to you. Some of that comes simply from your being more experienced than you were when you first read them. Some from your having read more. Either way, those poems have become life companions.
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