August 23, 2025 Introduction to Poetry Anton Jarvis · Introduction To Poetry by Billy Collins Introduction to Poetry <P> 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. © by owner. provided at no charge for educational purposes Analysis (ai): This poem is a metaphor for how people should approach poetry. It suggests that people should not try to force a poem to reveal its meaning, but rather to explore it gently and playfully like a slide, hive, or room. This is in contrast to the more traditional approach of analyzing a poem’s structure and meaning, which this poem compares to torturing a confession out of a prisoner. The poem’s playful and imaginative language encourages readers to approach poetry with a sense of curiosity and wonder, rather than a desire to extract a single, definitive meaning. In this way, the poem reflects the postmodern emphasis on multiple interpretations and the rejection of traditional authority. (hide) Like (2061)
