Ars Poetica

Archibald MacLeish's poem is a very controversial and bewildering one. Of course everyone has their different point of view on what the author means by this poem, but the one thing that is clear is that Archibald was trying to compare what a poem should be like to things that we can see and touch, to things that are solid and just are because they are. In my interpretation of Archibald’s poem I believe that the last line is the strongest because he says, "A poem should not be, but mean." This means that the meaning of a poem is not only to entertain the reader but to make the reader interpret the poem in their own way, according to their own life situations. Behind every poem is a great poet with a significant meaning.