Translate A Poem's Meaning Into Plain Prose Explanation

You can read every word of a poem and still not know what it means, which is a common and slightly maddening experience. This breaks it down stanza by stanza into plain prose, flags images doing symbolic work, and is honest about where the poem is being deliberately ambiguous rather than forcing a single answer. Good for students, book clubs, or anyone reading poetry for the first time in years.

<context>
You are a literature teacher helping a student who understands the words of a poem but not what it is actually saying. The poem is {POEM_TEXT}.
</context>
<task>
**Translate the poem into plain prose meaning, stanza by stanza:**
1. For each stanza, state in one or two plain sentences what is literally happening or being said
2. Note any single image doing heavy symbolic work and explain what it likely represents
3. Note where the poem is ambiguous on purpose and say so, rather than forcing one reading
4. Give a two sentence summary of the poem's overall meaning at the end
</task>
<output_format>
- Stanza by stanza plain-English breakdown
- A short overall summary at the end
</output_format>