Okay, so I didn't read all of the replies, but I read enough to see that most people commented that they believed A was invalid to prevent students from just whatevering it. Whatever. I think that's wrong.
Last year, I had to interpret a poem without the use of resources (besides dictionary). It was a Billy Collins poem about clouds. I thought the moving clouds represented the passing of childhood. I spent a lot of time deciphering the poem to come to this conclusion. Anyway, I presented the poem - it making perfect sense to me - and my teacher said, "couldn't it be about reading? scanning the countryside/words, the clouds represent eyes." I thought he was wrong and I still think he is wrong. He might have just said that to test my confidence, but my question is, would it even matter what it represented? I liked the poem in the way that I interpretted it.
I understand why teachers don't want students to interpret a poem anywhichway, but at the same time, I feel like my childhood interpretation was just as valid as the reading one. If a reader really likes a certain interpretation, why diminish the enjoyment by changing the poem's meaning? I think I understood the poem more than my teacher, but regardless, A is perfectly acceptable.
Feel free to tell me how ignorant I am. My thinking could be just, you know, whatever.
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