"With the question of the effect of a poem, the topic of investigation shifts from that of textual autonomy to textual reception - to the issue of what we actually look for or find in reading a poem"
About this Quote
The phrase "the effect of a poem" is doing sly work here. It treats poetry less as a container of meaning and more as a force with consequences, measurable in attention, emotion, and aftertaste. That quietly rebukes criticism that performs expertise by pretending the reader is irrelevant, as if interpretation were a neutral lab procedure. Harrison’s "what we actually look for or find" adds another twist: reading is half desire, half discovery. We go to poems hunting for something (solace, status, clarity, an alibi for feeling), then pretend what we found was inevitable, ordained by the text itself.
Contextually, this lands in the long argument between formalist approaches that privilege structure and language, and reader-response traditions that insist meaning is co-produced. Harrison isn’t saying the poem can mean anything; he’s saying the real question is why certain meanings, effects, and pleasures reliably occur for certain communities at certain times. It’s criticism as cultural reporting: not only what the poem is, but what it does, and to whom.
Quote Details
| Topic | Poetry |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Harrison, Thomas. (2026, January 16). With the question of the effect of a poem, the topic of investigation shifts from that of textual autonomy to textual reception - to the issue of what we actually look for or find in reading a poem. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/with-the-question-of-the-effect-of-a-poem-the-121902/
Chicago Style
Harrison, Thomas. "With the question of the effect of a poem, the topic of investigation shifts from that of textual autonomy to textual reception - to the issue of what we actually look for or find in reading a poem." FixQuotes. January 16, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/with-the-question-of-the-effect-of-a-poem-the-121902/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"With the question of the effect of a poem, the topic of investigation shifts from that of textual autonomy to textual reception - to the issue of what we actually look for or find in reading a poem." FixQuotes, 16 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/with-the-question-of-the-effect-of-a-poem-the-121902/. Accessed 12 Feb. 2026.
