Toward a general theory on reading poetry

When I was young, I read The Waste Land and knew none of the references, or almost none (the supper at Emmaus only). To understand any of it, I had to go and do research.

Some decades later, I read Ulysses. By then I had read enough English literature to recognize when a parody of style or content was happening, and to know the source being parodied without needing to look it up ("Hey, wait a minute, this sounds just like..."). Being able to do this enhanced my appreciation of the novel, even if I ultimately did not love it.

I find poetry to be a richer field now than I did when I was younger simply because there is more material in my head: formally in the sense that I've read more and can catch more detail I would have missed, informally in the sense that the store of memories and feelings increases and allusions and reminiscences the author could not have intended come more thickly now.