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 the 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.


     Billy Collins is a well established American poet.  He was born on March 22, 1941 in New York.  When he was young, his mother would make him recite verses on a number of different subjects.  Through this, he learned to love words.  He is a distinguished professor at Lehman College, which is evident that he teaches in the poem. 
     The structure of the poem is free verse.  There's no structured rhyme scheme, lines in each stanza, or fixed meter. 
     In the first five stanzas, Collins is trying to get his audience to experience the poem.  He wants them to use different senses to find the poem's meaning.  He also wants his audience to relate the author to the poem. 
     The last two stanzas tell what they do instead.  His audience dissects the poem, and tries to find the one "right" meaning to the poem.  This is where ambiguity comes into play.  I think our class might need a reminder of our "Word of the Year."

simple straightforward ambiguity