After reading the article by Laurence Perrine, I set down the paper, let out a sigh of relief, and said "Finally.. It all makes sense now!"  Before reading the article, I had a slight idea that there were correct and incorrect interpretations of poems, but I wasn't sure how to explain this belief.  Perrine could not have expressed my feelings more closely.   I agree with him completely.  I don't think that there is only one right interpretation of each poem, but I know there are wrong ones.  Being a science-minded person, when he stated that "These two criteria are not different from those we bring to the judgement of a new scientific hypothesis, it made sense to me.   Why would the writer of a poem put in details that contradict its meaning?  The presence of those contradicting details would have to be explained by some other purpose or other meaning, which makes no sense.  And I agree that there are seemingly infinite ways to explain any scenario, but that doesn't make all of them good explanations.  The most plausible explanation is the best in my mind as well as Perrine.
Just because I say that I completely agree with Perrine doesn't mean that I am a great interpreter of poetry.  That couldn't be further from the truth.  I actually am pretty terrible at interpreting it.  Perrine put me to shame with his explanations of the meanings of the four poems.  I interpreted all of them wrong.  For some of them I wasn't even close to the meaning.  In the future I plan to pay more attention to details, so that I can better understand the author's intended meaning or at least something close.  I don't think that my interpretations were worthless.  When I read the poems, my interpretation is what came to mind, and it was real to me.  However, after seeing the "real" meanings provided by Perrine, I was more pleased by the poems and my mind could see a more full picture.  Where before I saw a vague canvas with the edges unpainted, coated with only a few colors and details; I now see a full canvas, covered edge-to-edge with countless beautiful colors of paint and brimming with crisp details.  The portrait comes alive, and I know that I am seeing what the writer saw in his mind when he wrote the poem.  For this reason, I agree with Perrine.