How come poems can have multiple translations but there is such a thing as a wrong translation?
Your teacher is making an important point. It’s true that some poems, or some passages within a poem, can be open to more than one reasonable interpretation. But lots of lazy, careless readers take that to mean that the meaning of every poem is completely up for grabs, that any interpretation is just as valid as any other. A little bit of thought will make it clear that that can’t possibly be true. If somebody says that they see “The Walrus and the Carpenter” as a serious poem about the health benefits of a seafood diet, or that they read “The Raven” as a cheerful nature poem about birds and humans living together in peace, you can see right away that their interpretation is idiotic. If somebody says that “The Charge of the Light Brigade” is a poem that praises the military leadership at the battle, and criticizes the soldiers who died, you have no trouble seeing that they are seriously misinterpreting the poem. Some poems can legitimately be interpreted in more than one way. Every poe
