Obscurity
A poem shouldn't mean but be (MacLeish). But it's natural to want to understand a poem. To what extent should a poem be understandable? Are there types of obscurity that draw us in and other types that push us away?
I'm frequently attracted to things I don't understand in Wallace Stevens, and almost always put off by such things in other poems. I can't put my finger on what it is about Stevens's obscurity--if that's the right word for it--that attracts me.
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