Mixed Reviews
How should one deal with reviews and critiques that don't all agree? Books dealing with the issue Many years ago I.A. Richards wrote "Practical Criticism" (Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1929) in which he analysed the comments of a group of students who blind-read poetry. I think P. Hobsbaum in "Theory of Criticism" also covered this issue. He suggested that a good poem can support many interpretations (indeed, benefits from them) whereas a bad poem can't. Influence of critics' experience It may be that better critics agree with each other more than worse critics do Alternatively, "Lesser critics try to normalize, to chastise the poem for straying outside the expected parameters. Bad poets want to be certain more than they want to explore where a poem might be going" - Mike Alexander. Critics vary because there are Inarticulate critics - people who can't find the right words for what they feel. I think in general critical languag...