Comment by philips

Former US poet laureate Billy Collins wrote a poem about this sort of thing:

The Effort

  Would anyone care to join me
  in flicking a few pebbles in the direction
  of teachers who are fond of asking the question:
  "What is the poet trying to say?"

  as if Thomas Hardy and Emily Dickinson
  had struggled but ultimately failed in their efforts—
  inarticulate wretches that they were,
  biting their pens and staring out the window for a clue.

  Yes, it seems that Whitman, Amy Lowell
  and the rest could only try and fail
  but we in Mrs. Parker's third-period English class
  here at Springfield High will succeed

  with the help of these study questions
  in saying what the poor poet could not,
  and we will get all this done before
  that orgy of egg salad and tuna fish known as lunch.

It continues on for a few more stanzas; consider purchasing a copy of Ballistics for the full poem. The rest of the book is filled with memorable insights as well.