Even in that world, I would dare say that poems have meaning. Just one that is personal to the beholder. As a lover of the sciences and mathematics, it used to

Even in that world, I would dare say that poems have meaning. Just one that is personal to the beholder. As a lover of the sciences and mathematics, it used to really bother me, the 'subjectiveness' of there being no "right" answer - but I think an important aspect of that subjectivity is that while there are not necessarily knowably correct answers, it is quite possible for an interpretation to fail to map. What makes many a poem beautiful is how many 'correct' (and often mutually exclusive) interpretations simultaneously contain, i.e. interpretations that are not contradicted by the poem itself. That aspect of containing multitudes is now one of the may things I have come to really appreciate about poetry, and the arts more generally.