With songs such as Raglan Road I think it's justified to try and tease out the metaphors within the narrative to better understand the author's intentions. Then to find some kind of baseline connection with our own emotions to bring out the feeling within a song. Though Kavanagh was embittered he found his writing to be an outlet for the beauty that was hidden beneath his defensive exterior. With more traditional material where it is difficult to find an author's intentions ( sometimes of various authors down the years) we have to look inwards and interpret the songs on a purely personal level.