[Shaun J. Russell]

I'm inclined to agree with Susan. When I teach poetry (as I'm doing this semester), I always have the students read the poems before I provide context. We start class with me providing a bit of info about the author, about the historical context, perhaps what a standard "take" is of the poem...but never before they've had the chance to read it on their own and form initial impressions. Likewise, I encourage them to try to avoid the notes made by the editors in the anthology, because they're often subjective, and often suggest absolute meanings for elements that should be interpretive. My scholarship engages heavily with authorial intention (and publisher intention etc.), but I'm a firm believer in reader-response in how poems should initially be approached.

In short, when we really sit down to study a poem in depth (e.g. truly at length), bringing in all possible avenues to aid interpretation is fine. But at the outset, the poem should stand or fall on its own, as Susan said. Prefaces only serve to color the initial reading experience, often to the poem's detriment.