It is better to have the child in the chimney corner moved by what happens in the poem, in spite of his ignorance of its real meaning, than to have the poem a puzzle to which that meaning is the only key. Still, complicated subjects make complicated poems, and some of the best poems can move only the best readers; this is one more question of curves of normal distribution. I have tried to make my poems plain, and most of them are plain enough; but I wish that they were more difficult because I had known more.

"Answers to Questions," from Mid-Century American Poets, edited by John Ciardi, 1950 [p. 170] - Kipling, Auden & Co: Essays and Reviews 1935-1964 (1980)