Introduction to Poetry Blog Post-Billy Collins

Introduction to Poetry-Billy Collins

• Is it trying to personify the idea of poetry itself?
• Is there a certain audience for this poem? or is it directing to everyone? younger readers? Authors? Poets?

This poem was very persuasive and made me want to read and understand every kind of poetry.  The author did a great job using metaphors and personification to relate the idea of poetry to the everyday of poetry's readers and writers.  It showed the characteristics of what all poetry can hold for a poetry-illiterate person like me.  The poet's use of metaphoric language and detail helped to create very familiar and picturesque images in my head which helped me to understand the meaning of this poem.  The author's meaning to readers of this poem is to dig deep inside of a poem and work at it, along with the help of other references and resources, to fully understand the poem's meaning and message.  The author's main message is for simple readers, like myself, to not just sit there and look for the clues of a secret message hidden within the text, but for simple readers to put themselves into the story to be able to relate the words into their very own lives.  

Overall, this has been one of my favorite poems I have read in my career thus far.  This poem helped me to create an interest in poetry to where I want to learn more about the different kinds, and change my ways of being a simple reader to a more complex, diverse, and universal poetry reader.  I hope we are able to dig deep in discussion during class time to help deliver the full message of the poem to classmates.

Class discussion: Author is a sort of teacher or instructor.  He says "them" which applies to students. "press an ear against its hive" means to listen closely to the sounds the poem makes".  "walk around the poems room and feel the walls for a light switch" means that you may be in the dark until you walk around, trying to find the knowledge of the poem, until you finally find the light switch ( the key to understanding the poem) to turn the poem on in your head.  "waterski across the surface of a poem waving at the authors name on the shore" refers to a ocean or beach, suggesting that the author is trying to relate joyful things to poetry to get his students interested.  The author hints throughout the poem that the kids are somewhat ungrateful and just want to be told the meaning of the poem without any kind of trying to figure out what the poem means or any work on the poem. "torture a confession out of it" hints that the kids just want to go the easiest route (beating the poem and torturing it) instead of trying to find the real problem or understanding of the poem, and spending time to figure the real meaning out gently yet thoroughly.