Timothy Kightlinger

ENGL 2329 Section 001

Spring 2015
“Introduction to Poetry”
(748 Words)
“Introduction to Poetry” by Billy Collins is a poem that tries to teach a reader to listen to a
poem for all its beauty without tearing it apart and butchering it. Poetry is a wonderful form of
art that is not always understood by some and a source of relaxation and enjoyment for others. A
beautiful painting is an expression of art with different textures, colors and details making it
unique. Poetry is an expression of art set to a rhythm that make it unique and is created to illicit
memories, feelings or images not all people share.
In the first stanza Collins writes:
I ask them to take a poem
and hold it up to the light
like a color slide
Collin’s poem is written in first person about them, the student, and what he wants the student
to do with a poem. He uses allusion when he says to take the poem and hold it into the light.
When thinking about shining a light onto something, the song by The Rolling Stones “Shine a
Light” comes to my mind. It is a reference to when something feels hopeless, difficult to
understand, or hard to deal with you can shine a light on it and bring it out of the darkness. This
will give that something a new life and possibly a better understanding.
If the poem is still too hard or difficult for the reader to understand Collins writes in a single
line stanza: “or press an ear against its hive.” Inside a bee hive is the rhythmic hum of bees
making beautiful sweet honey. Collins is trying to convey a message to listen for the rhythmic
hum and the honey being made. Using your senses and listening to the meaning of the poem
allows us to discover alliterations, rhythm or onomatopoeia like bees making honey.
Poetry can also seem like a puzzle that has changes making it difficult to understand. Collins
writes, “I say drop a mouse into a poem / and watch him probe his way out,” He is saying even a
mouse can find his way out of a poem. The reader is encouraged to go into the poem and find
their way out. This helps the reader gain a better understand of the poem’s meaning.
Pressing on, Collins wants to tap into the reader’s sense of touch to give insight on how to
progress through the poem. Collins writes: “or walk inside the poem’s room / and feel the walls
for a light switch. When one blindly goes into a dark room they can only feel the wall for a light
switch. In comparison the reader uses a sense of feeling while going into a poem feeling their
way the poem. Eventually, the person will discover the light switch that gives light, sight, and a
better understanding.
 Collins uses other techniques to bring the readers visual senses alive with the following lines:
I want them to waterski
across the surface of a poem
waving at the author’s name on the shore.
Waterskiing implies that the reader should distance himself from the safety of the familiar
ground and read a poem while skimming the top of the water. Remembering the person on shore
who wrote the poem. Sometimes, researching the poet may help understand the meaning of a
poem. Collins wants the reader to breathe in the poem like fresh air and breathe out with
understanding and contempt.
Collins changes the tone of the poem to that of familiar frustration with the climax:
But all they want to do
is tie the poem to a chair with rope
and torture a confession out of it.
A reader that does not understand, or take light in, how the poet tells a story may get frustrated
and reject or criticize the poem because it is not understood. He is using “torture a confession
out of it” as a metaphor for people destroy something they do not understand. Collins fears:
“They begin beating it with a hose / to find out what it really means.”
In conclusion, after reading this poem, it is Collin’s desire to show the reader ways to perceive
and enjoy poetry using their sense of sight, touch and hearing to gain insight to what the poet is
trying to convey. I really didn’t read poetry until taking this class and now I appreciate poetry as
a form of art.