For most students, poetry is a complex subject that we all wish to avoid. Much effort is needed to understand the vague imagery and complicated word play to comprehend the overall message the poet is trying to portray. Ultimately, in the end, we fail to actually enjoy the piece because we are too focus on analyzing everything in the poem. Billy Collins “Introduction to Poetry,” criticized this need to torture a poem for its meaning when in fact it should be a slow but enjoyable process to go through. Due to this, he illustrates way in which poetry should be tackled. He was able to convey his idea through the usage of metaphor and imagery as we all as the structure of the poem .
One thing that stood out in this poem is the number of metaphor the poet used to compare a poem. For example, on the first stanza, the poet wrote “I ask them to take a poem and hold it up to the light like a color slide” (Collins). Here, the speaker is comparing a poem to a color slide. This establish a strong imagery of person visually inspecting the poem, just like how you would do when you first discover a new object. By using the world “color slide,” the speaker is making a suggestion that as
What once started off as a whimsical tone has now transcended into bitterness. The speaker has now personified a poem by physically stating that all students wanted to do “is tie the poem to a chair with rope and torture a confession out of it” (Collins). This highlights the constant need of students to over analyze a poem to find the hidden meaning of it without actually listening to what it has to say. We are so desperate to find the depth within a poem that we forget to enjoy the art of poetry. By forcefully berating a poem for its overall meaning, instead of doing it in a calmly and freely way, it takes the fun out the topic. This in effect makes the subject of poetry a dreaded lesson due to our fixation on the meaning of
There are multiple examples of visual imagery in this poem. An example of a simile is “curled like a possum within the hollow trunk”. The effect this has is the way it creates an image for the reader to see how the man is sleeping. An example of personification is, “yet both belonged to the bush, and now are one”. The result this has is how it creates an emotion for the reader to feel
With the use of irony and a free rhyme scheme, Collins’ poem vocalizes his opinion on how lying to children about significant facts can only serve to make them ignorant. The way he communicates this to us is by ironically emphasizing events by understating them. He shows how important an event is by mocking the teacher’s portrayal of the event. One example of how he does this is how the teacher tells his students that the ice age was just the “chilly age, a period of a million years when everyone had to wear sweaters.”(3-4). Collins does this several times with other important events in history, such as the Spanish Inquisition, where “[It] was nothing more than an outbreak of questions.”(7-8). The teacher’s interpretation of events, when compared to the actual events themselves creates a sense of unease, as the lies stray far away from what actually happened, and brings up the question of whether or not these lies should be told. Collins uses events that involve death and destruction to accentuate how big the contrast between the teacher’s explanation and reality is. After the class ends, the children leave the classroom to “torment the weak and the smart” (15-16), while the teacher is oblivious to it all. Note that Collins puts “and the smart” (16) on a separate line from “torment the weak” (15). The children in the class aren’t smart because they did not learn about the true events in history. This distinction emphasized the ignorance of the children. This contrasts with Wilbur’s poem, as the lie told there served to soothe a child’s fear, rather than breed ignorance. The rhyme scheme is different as well. Collins’ free rhyme scheme is used to create a sense of unease, whereas Wilbur’s rhyme scheme creates a child-like feeling to his poem. Unlike the parents in “A Barred Owl”, the teacher is portrayed as an ignorant man, unaware of what happens around
Good poetry provides meaningful commentary. One indication of a poem’s success in this is the depth of thought the reader has as a result of the poem. The poems I anthologized may take different
Poetry has a way of making us feel every range of emotion, in some cases better than other forms of entertainment. Unlike a novel, which gives a wide field of vision on any subject, poems have a more focused look mostly on the raw emotion of any one topic. Understanding poetry is an art onto itself, to be able to peel back the words and feel the emotions within them is truly its own work. Harder yet is the ability to dissect and explain these ideas to another person (in this case through an essay)and have them feel and see the poem and the topic it brings to light in the same way that you do. The poem that we will explore is powerful and thought provoking, because it brings the ugly subject of oppression to the front of your mind and forces you to engage in a conversation that you have no control over. It makes you feel hopeless and angry at the same time. In the poem Unwanted by Edward Field we are going to explore the parts of the poem but mainly we will
Billy Collins is one of the most credited poets of this century and last. He is a man of many talents, most recognized though by his provocative and riveting poetry. As John McEnroe was to the sport of tennis, Billy Collins has done the same for the world of poetry. Collin’s rejected the old ways of poetry, created his own form, broke all the rules, and still retains the love and respect of the poet community. Collins has received the title of Poet Laureate of the United States twice and also has received countless awards and acknowledgements. He has achieved this through a style of poetry that is not over-interpreted and hard to understand to most, but that of the complete opposite, his poetry is hospitable and playful.
In today’s modern view, poetry has become more than just paragraphs that rhyme at the end of each sentence. If the reader has an open mind and the ability to read in between the lines, they discover more than they have bargained for. Some poems might have stories of suffering or abuse, while others contain happy times and great joy. Regardless of what the poems contains, all poems display an expression. That very moment when the writer begins his mental journey with that pen and paper is where all feelings are let out. As poetry is continues to be written, the reader begins to see patterns within each poem. On the other hand, poems have nothing at all in common with one another. A good example of this is in two poems by a famous writer by the name of Langston Hughes. A well-known writer that still gets credit today for pomes like “ Theme for English B” and “Let American be American Again.”
Poetry is often forgotten in our society. Poetry is mistaken for something less than its greater meaning. Four specific poets demonstrate the true meaning of poetry through their words and imagery. These poets use their own language to speak to us in poetry, by describing a major event that has happened in their life. It is truly captivating to hear these poets speak from another aspect that we are not use too.
A poem is usually developed by a certain method or a style that the poet uses to help the reader to understand the meaning of the poem. The poem Graded Paper written by the poet Mark Halliday, is about a teacher who is grading a student’s paper and giving feedback on it. In the poem the poet uses different techniques to support and develop the poem. In the poem, the teacher who is grading the paper uses special tone while grading the paper. The teacher is the poem uses a tone of caring and helpful to the student. Although, throughout the poem, the teacher gives negative comments to the student, at the end the teacher gives the student an A-. This is the irony that the poet uses in the poem. Another technique the author uses
At the beginning of the poem, the speaker starts by telling the reader the place, time and activity he is doing, stating that he saw something that he will always remember. His description of his view is explained through simile for example “Ripe apples were caught like red fish in the nets of their branches” (Updike), captivating the reader’s attention
The poem opens upon comparisons, with lines 3 through 8 reading, “Ripe apples were caught like red fish in the nets/ of their branches. The maples/ were colored like apples,/part orange and red, part green./ The elms, already transparent trees,/ seemed swaying vases full of sky.” The narrator’s surroundings in this poem illustrate him; and the similes suggest that he is not himself, and instead he acts like others. Just as the maples are colored like apples, he
On the other hand, in the opening of Introduction to Poetry, Collins begins with a sign of hope but instead fades away with a frustrated tone. Behind his words, he is possibly hinting a favor of kindness towards his students, taking time out of his day to lecture them about something he truly cares for. Or he could just be trying to change students' perspective towards poems. He wishes for all students to appreciate and experience the poem as well as hoping for them to seek in deep and find a message, like stated in lines 7-8 "walk inside a poem.. feel the
New Criticism attracts many readers to its methodologies by enticing them with clearly laid out steps to follow in order to criticize any work of literature. It dismisses the use of all outside sources, asserting that the only way to truly analyze a poem efficiently is to focus purely on the words in the poem. For this interpretation I followed all the steps necessary in order to properly analyze the poem. I came to a consensus on both the tension, and the resolving of it.
He uses powerful imagery and onomatopoeia to achieve the desired effects that make the poem more realistic. All this combined together produces effective thought provoking ideas and with each read, I gradually get an improved understanding and appreciation of the poem.
The popular American Poet, Billy Collins, is playing a significant role in the evolution of poetry. His writing style evokes an array of emotions for the reader. Every stanza in his poetry passes the satirical standard that he generated for himself over his career. Collins swiftly captivates his readers through his diverse use of figurative language. More specifically, his use of vivid imagery paired with humorous personification and extended metaphors create his unique style of satirical poetry. This developed form of writing appeals to a large crowd of people because the generally accessible topics that he discusses are fairly easy to resonate for the common man. However, his poetry offers an interesting perspective on what otherwise would be simplistic ideas. The main themes and concepts that are being presented in each of his writings are revered and coveted by the general population. An appealing aspect of his writing is his ability to directly convey the main idea within the poem. As a result, the reader can understand the meaning of his work with ease. The typical beginning of his work gives the reader a slight taste of what is to come. Billy Collins’ unique writing style and various trademarks directly influenced by his ability to propagate an array of emotions for the reader, his humorous tone, and the accessibility of the topics he describes within his poetry.
“Billy Collins' “Introduction to Poetry” isn’t an ars poetica poem about writing poetry, but about reading poetry. The speaker is a teacher who tells his students that they should experience a poem, rather than dissect it. The f...