 Once again, there’s something wrong and something right in what Beardsley says. He’s undoubtedly right that sentence meaning and speaker meaning needn’t coincide, and that that proves that the two aren’t identical. Thus the author’s intention isn’t always the final word on what a text means. That, however, doesn’t prove that the author’s intention carries no evidential weight at all. According to the alternative position, it does, but in some cases, perhaps the majority of them, not enough to carry the day. In other cases, however, and perhaps Housman’s among them, the author’s intention can tip the scales in favor of one reading rather than another. In any case, the argument here might conclude, the unease that many people feel in dismissing Housman from the interpretation of his poem argues that we should accord his intentions at least some weight.