Deconstruction is a way of reading poetry and other literature that questions the idea of a single, fixed meaning. It looks for tensions, contradictions, gaps, and word choices that may undermine the poem's surface message or reveal more than one interpretation at once.
Rather than treating a poem as having one final explanation, deconstructive criticism examines how language can be unstable and how meaning can shift depending on context and reading.
Example
A deconstructive reading of the poem might note that its repeated image of "home" first suggests safety, then begins to feel like confinement, so the same word carries two opposing meanings at once.
[n] a philosophical theory of criticism (usually of literature or film) that seeks to expose deep-seated contradictions in a work by delving below its surface meaning