“Introduction to Poetry” – Billy Collins

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.

               In Collin’s famous poem “Introduction to Poetry” is not just about the amazing metaphors, but also about the lack of appreciation of poems in general. He tries to make people understand that readers have lost the charisma of poems. Instead of the audience interpreting it themselves, they only want the true meaning in the poem, but many poets – like Billy Collins – want readers to interpret them themselves and bring their own meaning to the poem so that it can be strong and give the appreciation the poem deserves. Like the first stanza Collins says, “I ask them to take a poem/and hold it up to the light,/like a color shade” he wants the readers to find their own meaning, rather than take his personal meaning because poetry is about yourself, rather than the author. As readers, we are so stuck on the true meaning of the poem that we forget that poetry is about creating your own meaning.

               He says, on stanza three:  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. He is saying to be blind to the author, and think about yourself. What does this poem mean to you? What could this poem be saying inside your heart? Read it, until you understand how the words connect to your own life. He wants the reader to find their own way out – to find the answer inside the poem. He even says on stanza four: “I want them to waterski/ across the surface of a poem/ waving at the author’s name on the shore” to reassure the readers that there is no answer. He wants the readers to understand that even the authors sometimes don’t know the true meaning, they rely on the readers to understand it.

               On the second to last stanza, Collins says, in order to get to his point “But all they want to do/is tie the poem to a chair with rope/and torture a confession out of it.” This is what declares his main point: that we have lost the love for poetry. Poetry, to us, has merely come to a work assignment, when it shouldn’t be like that. Instead, it should seen as a piece of art.