Poetry Response 2/16/15

Poetry Response
2/16/15

        The poem that I chose to talk about is "Introduction to Poetry" by Billy Collins. This poem is about how people try to understand a poem. The narrator asks "them" to do several things with a poem. Then explains what they really do. The narrators says "I want them to waterski across the surface of the poem waving at the author's name on the shore." Then says "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." I think Billy Collins wrote this poem to show that people just look for the message of the poem and don't really embrace it. I also think he wanted readers to look deeper into the contents of the poem.


        I think this poem would be a text to self poem because people can relate to it. I can easily relate because I too just looked for the message and didn't connect to it. This poem reminds me of Dr. Seuss's writings. The connection between the two is the imagination they both use in their writings. 

Billy Collins

Introduction to Poetry

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.