Intro to Poetry

Introduction to Poetry
Billy Collins
I ask them to take a poem
and hold it up to the light
like a color slide

or press an ear against its hive.

I say drop a mouse into a poem
and watch him probe his way out,

or walk inside the poem's room
and feel the walls for a light switch.

I want them to waterski
across the surface of a poem
waving at the author's name on the shore.

But all they want to do
is tie the poem to a chair with rope
and torture a confession out of it.

They begin beating it with a hose
to find out what it really means.



This poem by Billy Collins is about enjoying poetry for what it is instead of picking it apart and looking for a right or wrong answer. Poetry is subjective and has many different meanings and interpretations. Students and readers of poems often look to immediately find a meaning and answer to the poem when they should just be enjoying it and gathering a general feeling or idea from it. Sometimes in poetry I feel like the mouse trying to find the way through the poem and struggling tremendously. The point of this poem is that this is ok. It is also not necessary to pick apart every line to find the meaning. Poetry is there for enjoyment so instead of trying to pull out of it an immediate answer, the reader should just enjoy it for what it is. Each stanza is offering a different approach to viewing the poem. All in all, there is no need