Wallace Stevens, Paganism, and Poetry: Is it the Reader That Gives A Poem it's Meaning?

In doing my work for the presentation project, I stumbled across a really interesting factor in a lot of poems by Wallace Stevens. First of all, we know he was a poet from a long time ago. Where we're standing there is hardly a theme of religious tolerance, but back then...it was surely worse.

To me, his poem "Sunday Morning" gives a bit of an air of arguing Religion. It offers up themes in the poem that suggest towards ancient Paganism. That's just what I got from it. But, in doing a bit of digging, I found out others, even non-Pagans, had the same sort of view about the poem.
As Academic Help Says:

"Sunday Morning" offers one of Stevens's first substitutes for Christianity: natural religion, or paganism. Stevens said very little about this poem after writing it, other than to note in 1928 that "the poem is simply an expression of paganism" and later, in 1944, to indicate that Hi Simons was correct in assuming that the poem suggests "a naturalistic religion as a substitute for supernaturalism".

And for me, in reading his works in the book "The Palm at the End of the Mind," I tended to keep picking out little details that suggested towards Paganism.
This isn't to say that I think Stevens was a Pagan.... I have no proof, and of course he's not around to ask.
But it made me wonder if it was just me, and my experience projecting my thoughts and opinions onto the symbols and language present in a poem, or if they're actually there as intended by the author.

My favorite verse is "II"
"Why should she give her bounty to the dead?
What is divinity if it can come
Only in silent shadows and in dreams?
Shall she not find in comforts of the sun,
In pungent fruit and bright green wings, or else
In any balm or beauty of the earth,
Things to be cherished like the thought of heaven?
Divinity must live within herself:
Passions of rain, or moods in falling snow;
Grievings in loneliness, or unsubdued
Elations when the forest blooms; gusty
Emotions on wet roads on autumn nights;
All pleasures and all pains, remembering
The bough of summer and the winter branch.
These are the measure destined for her soul." -- Wallace Stevens, 'Sunday Morning'

Most of this stanza I can relate in some form or another to Earth and Paganism. *
"Shall she not find comforts in the sun,/in pungent fruit and bring green wings, or else/ in any balm or beauty of the earth,/things to be cherished like the thought of heaven?" Being some of the most powerful symbols to me. I see them to mean a point I've been...Questioning the main, culturally impressed aspect, and then finding out for myself what works...slowly of course.
*(Paganism, in any shape or form, is an earth centered religion...there's no ifs, ands, or buts. The most BASIC principle of any Pagan tradition is Life is of the Earth, and the Earth is why there is life.)

On the other hand, someone might take this to be an issue of sustainability -- especially if the issue is extremely dear to their heart. Someone else might think it a test of strength between someone and nature. Who knows?
I figured it would be a good question to think about. Is poetry written to be symbolic? Is it symbolic because it resonates with us on seperate, deeply personal levels? Did the author intend for us to reflect our own beliefs onto a poem?

Nope, this isn't specifically a question of religion or faith. This isn't even a question of Poetry Language, in general. It's of the Reader's mind when it comes to Poetry, and really thinking about what the words mean to us.