Reading Poetry

Harold Bloom says that we have to come to "possess" a poem in order to fully appreciate it:

"For my poetry students, there is a process I commend — take a poem that finds you, I will tell them, read it to yourself, then go to a quiet place, to your own space, and chant that poem, come to possess it. Find the space that the daimon of that poem inhabits and occupy it yourself. (...) I’ll ask my students also to begin a process of exegesis, to pull apart the thoughts of the poem, to delve into the words used, and that also is a process of appropriating, of coming to possess the poem, making it your own."

Man, would I ever love to take a class with him!

Sure, a lot of people think he's a snob for saying some books aren't even worthy of being read, but I can't help but look up to him.

Source: Harper's, August 2011