What should you balance when evaluating interpretations?

• A. Your own view with multiple interpretations and textual evidence.
• B. Only your initial impression.
• C. All interpretations with no evidence.
• D. Quotes alone without analysis.

Answer: (A)

When evaluating interpretations, you should balance your own reading with consideration of multiple plausible readings and the textual evidence that supports them. Poetry often invites more than one meaning, and your own view becomes stronger when you test it against other valid readings and show precisely how the poem’s words, images, and techniques back it up. This approach demonstrates careful close reading and helps you manage ambiguity by weighing evidence rather than relying on a single impression.

Relying only on your initial impression misses deeper cues the poem offers, and proposing every possible interpretation without evidence isn’t grounded. Quotes need to be connected to analysis—showing how a phrase or image points to a particular meaning. Focusing on both your view and other reasonable readings, each backed by textual evidence, gives a clearer, more persuasive analysis.