In “Introduction to Poetry,” Billy Collins describes a methodology for approaching poetry as something to be consumed and experienced with your senses, not merely forcing an interpretation by way of dissecting and butchering it line by line.
Through the poem's free verse, its peculiar, playful tone and imagery, the speaker implores the reader to appreciate the poem for all its capable of eliciting naturally, rather than forcing its meaning into awareness. He wants them to explore the poem, to listen to its sounds and unearth its hidden gems; to delight in it as a work of art. Collins wants the reader to traverse the poem as if on a sort of adventure, yet the reader seems to just want to cut to the chase and unfairly understand it by "beating"
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the meaning out of it. In the first stanza, Collins compares the poem to a color slide.
He is literally asking for one to look at the imagery that the words are creating, not just read them. A color slide is held up to the light to be seen, you may need to look at it a few times before uncovering all within the tiny square that houses the picture. He is conveying that sometimes you need to consider something several times, before you can uncover its depth and hidden meanings.
The second stanza compares the “poem” to a “hive”. Collins uses metaphor to implore the reader to “listen” to the sounds of the poem. The repeated “s” sounds in that line, “preSS an ear againSt itS hive," even sounds like buzzing bees. He’s using these auditory queues to let the reader know that sounds can convey an energy, a feeling like excitement, something alive and dangerous. You may not necessarily be able to uncover the meaning without truly putting your “ear to it,” listening and experiencing.
Next, he writes of the mouse in the maze. Often, students feel trapped in the maze of trying to understand poetry. The imagery of feeling the “walls for a light switch” is telling us that poetry can be confusing, but sometimes there are these “light switches,” little things that we find enjoyable, or make us think, that can help to “illuminate” the meaning of poems and therefore help us to appreciate
them. The end of the poem takes on a more sinister tone. His personification of the poem, “tie the poem to a chair with rope and torture a confession,” evokes a feeling of outrage and horror at the thought of someone being emphatically mistreated while helpless. Similarly, the speaker is aggreived by the reader's intent to exploit the poem for all its worth without a second thought. Ultimately, what Collins is trying to say is that we don’t need to focus so much on the meaning of poetry, rather we need to experience the fun, the imagery it evokes, the art of it. We need to get inside the poem to uncover it’s meaning, not just skim through the lines interpreting what the actual words mean.
The fear of reading literature and not being able to comprehend the ideas presented forces readers to create a deeper meaning through annotations, as expressed through Billy Collins’ use of comparative imagery and aggressive diction in “Marginalia” and “Introduction to Poetry.” Collins’ choice to
Many modern poets, including Billy Collins write in free verse. Richard Howard was quoted singing Collins’s praises about his verse. Howard said, “He has a remarkably American voice…that one recognizes immediately as being of the moment and yet has real validity besides, reaching very far into what verse can do”(“Billy Collins”). His poems often “reject any regular meter or rhyme, though it still incorporates rhythmical and sound effects that help convey a poem’s meaning” (Prinsky). Because the poem flows quickly, it is very easy to understand and interpret. If it were written with a certain rhyme scheme, the ideas that Collins portrayed would sound choppy and hard to infer. All of the points proved before work together to shape the overall meaning of the work. The author wrote this poem not only to provide readers with a relatable experience presented in an unorthodox way, but he also wrote it to show that even though one part of life is in the past, revisiting moments can bring happiness and be very beneficial. Towards the end of the poem when speaking about the present and how students still stop by to visit him and “turn in late papers”, he says that they”....[ask] a question about Yeats or double spacing” (Line 34). This line stands out because it shows that no matter the time frame, revisiting the past can help and not always harm. This meaning can relate to many things,
In Conclusion, Billy Collins use of irony in both the setting and the description of the stereotypical students helped strengthen the allusion of the poem. The students in the poem are in an eternal school lifestyle as opposed to being in a normal town environment. Aspects of the setting, such as the landscape being made out of paper and the night sky being compared to a blackboard painted a descriptive picture in the mind of the reader, making the allusion more believable and relatable. Also, the use of stereotypes in this poem added on to the allusion of the school environment, giving life to the society in the town created by Collins. At first, the poem may seem like only an allusion, but with a closer look, you can see the reality behind it all.
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
Poetry is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and rhythmic qualities; it is solely used to evoke emotive feelings in the reader in which to convey a message or story. This form of literature has a long history dating back thousands of years and is considered a literacy art form as it uses forms and conventions to evoke differentiating interpretations of words, though the use of poetic devices. Devices such as assonance, figurative language, alliteration, onomatopoeia and rhythm are sometimes used to achieve a musical and memorable aspect to the poem. Poems are usually written based on the past experiences of the poet and are greatly influenced by the writer’s morals values and beliefs. Poetry regularly demonstrates and emphasises on the
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 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.”
Billy Collins has used a specific metaphor, simile, rhyme and personification in his poem ‘Introduction to poetry’ in order to show how one should better understand a poem. This poem focused on what the poem actually mean and how a poem should be clearly understood. Throughout the poem, Billy Collins has presented a clear way of understanding the poem by using a very interesting imagery, symbolism, metaphor and a very sensitive sound. The words used in this poem are so powerful that the readers are convinced to think about the issue presented in the poem.
Collins is associating poetry to an energetic hive of creatures, asking the students to listen simply. It is clear that this is an intriguing thought; every word in work could be viewed as an individual working drone. The words are, independently less essential than the entire, yet in the meantime, each has its significance. The writer could say that it is more significant to take in the ballad in general than to pull separated the hive and take a gander at every working drone
His choice of words appeal to the readers senses by creating an emotional experience. In the first stanza, the speaker says “I ask them to take a poem and hold it up to the light like a color slide.” When holding up a color slide to the light you can see any colorful image, unlike having a dark square in your hand. The speaker is appealing to the readers visual senses and wants his readers to examine poetry closely and view it as if it was seen through light, to fully visualize the vast meaning of the poem. In the third stanza , “I say drop a mouse into a poem and watch him probe his way out.” When a mouse is in a maze it is usually for experimentation and the mouse has to try different approaches to discover his way out. He wants readers to think about poetry in various ways and experiment with ideas about the poem to find the meaning of the poem. In the fourth stanza the speaker says “or walk inside the poem’s room and feel the walls for a light switch.” When first going into a dark room you feel disorientated until you find the switch and you're able to see the light. Going into a dark room is like reading a poem for the first time you feel lost but once you reread the poem and pay close attention to what the poem is really saying you're able to see the emotions and feelings within that poem. In the fifth stanza the speaker says “I want them to waterski
Cummings' peculiar method of using syntax to convey hidden meaning is extremely effective. The reader does not simply read and forget Cummings' ideas; instead, he must figure out the hidden meaning himself. In doing this, he feels contentment, and thus retains the poem's idea for a more extended period of time. Cummings' ideogram poems are puzzles waiting to be solved.
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.
“A poem can start with something trivial and then develop significance along the way” (Collins 1138). The poet can start poetry however they desire. Billy Collins believes that using a certain language that is familiar to all easily catch the attention of the reader. Catching the readers attention then allows him to lead them towards a deeper meaning. Multiple scholars agree that Collins work is widely used for its language that many readers can understand. The University of Pittsburgh writes, “ Billy Collins poetry is widely accessible. He writes in an original way about all manner of ordinary things and situation” (Billington). They believe that Collins accessibly in poetry is due to the language he uses. He writes about current topics and address situations that one may run into.
When reading or listening to poetry, the main objective for me is to feel moved. Happiness, longing, sadness are some of the feelings that can be achieved just by listening to others’ words. It is within these words that creates another world, or separates us from our own. Words all have a certain kind of attachment to them, so if used properly an author can stimulate a reader beyond belief.