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I found the previous class a little confusing. I have to admit that I don't entirely understand the significance of "O Captain! My Captain!" in the discussion of this course. Was the point that a story evolved from the poem based on our previous knowledge and experience of the poem?

I also felt that making a versus between personal and taught interpretations of poetry was confusing. Everybody is taught how to interpret...it seems to me a basic foundation of the educational experience. There is a permanently existing tension in education between what is internally and externally derived. Our professors are still teaching all of us to interpret. How can there be a non-taught interpretation of a poem? 

I hope to discuss these questions in more depth in later conversations about poetry.