As a rookie schoolteacher, it was difficult for
Bel Kaufman to get fully certified by a byzantine school bureaucracy. The examiners had her explain a sonnet by
Edna St. Vincent Millay, and told her afterward she had given "a poor interpretation." Having been blocked once before because of a trace of a greenhorn accent, she refused to be stopped a second time. So she did what any true aspirant would have done: she wrote a letter to Ms. Millay and had her evaluate her interpretation.
"You gave a much better explanation of it than I myself should have," the poet wrote back, and the chastened examiners saved face by urging Ms. Kaufman to try for the license again.