Critic:   Emily Dickinson's poetry demonstrates that meaning cannot reside entirely within a poem itself, but is alwa...

Mehran October 25, 2018

Hi @Kellan, thanks for your post. So this is a Bizarro question. Four of the answers "could be true." The one correct answer "cannot be true," that is, it will be *inconsistent* with the information presented in the stimulus.

Let's look at each option.

(A): A reader's interpretation of a poem by Dickinson is affected by someone else's interpretation of it. This could be true; there is nothing in the stimulus that contradicts this statement. (This reader's system of beliefs, for example, might have been affected by another person's interpretation of the Dickinson poem, right?)

(B): A modern reader and a nineteenth-century reader interpret one of Shakespeare's sonnets in the same way. This CANNOT be true; it completely contradicts the text of the stimulus (which tells you: "any two readers from different cultures or eras have radically different systems of beliefs"). This is the correct answer.

(C): A reader's interpretation of a poem evolves over time. This could be true; there is nothing in the stimulus that contradicts it. So it's the wrong answer on this CANNOT be true question.

(D): Two readers from the same era arrive at different interpretations of the same poem. Again, this could be true (and there is some textual support for it: understanding the meaning of a poem "is always the unique result of an interaction between a reader's system of beliefs and the poem").

(E): A reader's enjoyment of a poem is enhanced by knowing the poet's interpretation of it. Again, this could be true - there is nothing in the stimulus that contradicts this statement.

Hope this is helpful. Please let us know if you have any additional questions.

Kellan October 26, 2018

As always, thank you for the prompt response. I chose (E), answer (B) was my second option, the others are obvious. I understand where you are coming from on the point of, "different cultures or eras". The problem I have with this question, answer (B) is comparing Shakespeare's sonnets to Dickinson's poetry. I thought we were not suppose to bring in "outside information", when answering questions. Is that an accurate statement? So I cancelled (B) out because it was not in the stimulus.

Jacob-R October 26, 2018

Hi @Kellan. While I see what you are saying, I don’t think that answer B is comparing Shakespeare’s sonnet to Dickinson’s poetry. Instead, the passage is using Dickinson’s poetry to make a broader point: that readers from different cultures or eras will have different systems of beliefs, and different system of beliefs will lead to different meaning in poems. Answer B applies that broader point to Shakespeare.

To answer your broader question of when to eliminate answers based on outside information, my basic advice is this: /you/ should not bring in outside information, but answer choices may (so long as that outside information is relevant to the question and prompt!)

To illustrate what I mean, imagine the prompt is some passage about chemistry. Let’s assume the question, like here, asks you what could be true EXCEPT given the truth of the passage. Let’s also imagine you are an expert in chemistry. You should not bring in your outside knowledge of chemistry to pick an answer that seems right given that outside information.

If an answer choice is consistent with the logic of the passage and is relevant to the question stem, however, that answer could mention (for example) hydrogen even though the passage only made a broader point based on the specific example of oxygen. Or Shakespeare, when the passage made a broader point only using Dickinson.

I hope this helps!