Poetry Analysis on Introduction to Poetry by Billy Collins
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Poetry analysis: introduction to poetry by Billy Collins
The poem “introduction to Poetry’ by Billy Collins, is a poem that deals with the idea that poetry is not analysed correctly. One is meant to gently probe for the very essence of a poem [“feel the walls for a light switch” line 8], appreciate the nuances of the poetry [ “hold it up to the light like a color slide” line 3] and above all, have fun and enjoy the experience [“waterski across the surface of the poem” line 10] .
In this poem, Collins portrays an English teacher who tries to get the above message across to his students. Collins shows, however, that they ignore his advice and instead, concentrate solely on trying to force an answer/ “the correct meaning” out of it. Their approach is brutal [“tie the poem...torture a confession out of it” line 13-14] and ineffective, as in their eagerness to extract the message the poet had wanted to get across, they fail to see the beauty and subtle art with which the poem is constructed.
In simplistic terms, the poem [“Introduction to Poetry” is a poem with seven stanzas. it is unrhymed and the stanzas are all varying in length. The poem could, however, be broken up into two sections: Lines1-11 [which deal with how the author feels poetry should be analysed] and lines 12-16 [which deal with the author’s opinion on how students analyse poetry in reality].
Punctuation is sparsely used in this poem. This, however, does not take away from the effectiveness of what Collins is trying to say. Instead, it simply serves to further emphasise the message and add an element of structure to the poem. This is particularly evident is in use of full stops. Collins uses five full stops. The first three are used in order to better separate his metaphors {describing what should happen when analysing poetry] and the images that these descriptions evoke.
For example, lines 1-4 deal with the concept of there being something more to a poem than simply that which first appearances...
The poem “introduction to Poetry’ by Billy Collins, is a poem that deals with the idea that poetry is not analysed correctly. One is meant to gently probe for the very essence of a poem [“feel the walls for a light switch” line 8], appreciate the nuances of the poetry [ “hold it up to the light like a color slide” line 3] and above all, have fun and enjoy the experience [“waterski across the surface of the poem” line 10] .
In this poem, Collins portrays an English teacher who tries to get the above message across to his students. Collins shows, however, that they ignore his advice and instead, concentrate solely on trying to force an answer/ “the correct meaning” out of it. Their approach is brutal [“tie the poem...torture a confession out of it” line 13-14] and ineffective, as in their eagerness to extract the message the poet had wanted to get across, they fail to see the beauty and subtle art with which the poem is constructed.
In simplistic terms, the poem [“Introduction to Poetry” is a poem with seven stanzas. it is unrhymed and the stanzas are all varying in length. The poem could, however, be broken up into two sections: Lines1-11 [which deal with how the author feels poetry should be analysed] and lines 12-16 [which deal with the author’s opinion on how students analyse poetry in reality].
Punctuation is sparsely used in this poem. This, however, does not take away from the effectiveness of what Collins is trying to say. Instead, it simply serves to further emphasise the message and add an element of structure to the poem. This is particularly evident is in use of full stops. Collins uses five full stops. The first three are used in order to better separate his metaphors {describing what should happen when analysing poetry] and the images that these descriptions evoke.
For example, lines 1-4 deal with the concept of there being something more to a poem than simply that which first appearances...