Rhina, you are the ideal reader every poet writes for. You reason from the effect back to the cause, giving an anonymous poet credit for having intended the meaning that comes across and for having chosen his words for a particular effect. I think in the workshop we mostly tend to look for exceptions, like CPA's, assuming that anything unexpected is a mistake rather than a key. At least we do unless we know the writer and he has built credibility with us.
The beauty of submitting a poem anonymously for critique is that the poem has to speak for itself and succeed or fail on its own. The critic has to take the poem on face value and either believe the poet or not. He can't say, "Well, I know Carol Taylor's background and style, so I understand this poem."
Nothing wrong with that, of course. I got to know Agatha Christie's style so well when I was a girl that I could solve her mysteries by psyching out the author: what kind of clues she left, what kind of characters committed murder in her books, even the sneaky way she worded passages to try to pull the wool over your eyes. But could someone less familiar with her style have solved the mysteries based on the clues alone? An exceptionally close reader might, but not always. Sometimes there were brand new characters pulled out of the hat at the end of the book, somebody's long lost brother or step-son or first husband who'd never appeared before and had been mentioned only in passing, or not at all. Or you were told that Hercule had to go somewhere and confirm something, but you weren't told what he had to check or where he went to do it. Or that Miss Marple found something familiar about one of the characters because she'd once known a murderer with the same color hair. I don't think a poem needs to tell everything, and as you say, it often tells much by what it chooses to omit. But if it needs an owner's manual to explain it, then the poem has missed its chance.
I'm delighted with your reading of my poem, Rhina, and doubly delighted that you didn't know who wrote it, yet understood it exactly as intended. Thank you for the close and perceptive read and for your encouraging comments on the voice and style. And thank you for commenting so intuitively on all 18 poems, making such a positive experience of this annual event.
My thanks also to those who commented on my poem: Rose, Margaret, Roger, Janet, Tim, Clay, Simon, Susan, Wendy, and Maggie. Your feedback lets me know what's working and not working for you, the readers.
Carol
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