"Poems as unchanging objects represent an organized entity, not a meaning. In this way, poems are fundamentally different from prose: prose strives to convey meaning; but poems cannot be perfectly translated or summarized, for they offer a being, an existence, an experience perhaps -- not a meaning."
describes poetry as something that is so beyond itself (in that it touches on the senses of humanity but does not seek to define them) that it never has meaning. Have any of us ever found a poem with a definite meaning? If so, then how did you manage to find its meaning? And if what Lynn says is true, that prose and poetry are fundamentally different, then couldn't this distinction coincide with literary theory and new criticism? If something is fundamentally different, typically that means analysis would have to explain and recognize those differences through close reading.
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