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.

I’m not much of a poetry person. Sometimes when I write about how I feel, it could pass for poetry, but that’s about as artistic as I get. Perhaps it’s for that reason I feel obligated to discuss poetry that actually does give me that sort of stirring sensation. I was first introduced to this poem in seventh grade, and it has remained my favorite poem to this day. I included it here above, because I really feel it’s the kind of poem that offers an atmosphere of depth and comprehension. On a personal level, I find this poem to be soothing and a sort of comfort.

When an individual finishes reading a poem, what is the first thing they are looking for? Are they looking to allow the words to speak as an art or are they looking to break the poem apart word by word to derive a highly analytic and systematic meaning for it? Isn't it odd that a simple Google search for this poem presents this poem as the introduction for an essay explaining the disadvantages of over-analyzing poetry?

Notice how Collins personifies a poem towards the end, evident in the line “tie the poem to a chair with rope”. If we choose to see a poem identical to the way Collins chooses to portray one, as a person, we would experience a few basic realizations. It wouldn't be right to compel the poem to listen to what we say about it, nor would it be right to tie it to a chair and torture a confession out of it. We would not beat any person with a hose until they do not resemble themselves either.

Then what do we do with a poem?

If someone asked me this question, I could never give a politically correct answer. But with a poem? We drink coffee and go out to the movies. Poems are not strict and rigid similar to the misconceived notion that has plagued many minds. They are free flowing and melt-in-your mouth treats. What is Billy Collins trying to tell us? Hold a poem up to the light, listen to the poem’s hive, water ski across the surface, and have a mouse probe its way out. Let the poem speak – and allow ourselves to listen. Do not take a poem and break it apart piece by piece, rather allow the poem to appeal to every single one of your senses, and then extract a meaning from it. If poetry is a person – allow it to speak. If poetry is an art – allow your senses to read.

When I read this poem, I noticed that everything Collins suggested one should do with a poem was something in which the poem was…discovered. The poem was deciphered…through a natural means. The poem is not changed to discover the underlying message. He claims that people beat it with a hose to find out what it really means. They torture the poem. This is exactly what Collins fears – why kill the beauty of a poem in the attempt to understand it?

I find his words enticing, and his speech inspiring – his poem about poems has become a thing of beauty for me. Reading his poem, I feel myself feeling what he would have desired me to feel and I feel the look of comprehension dawning upon myself as if he had just verbally told me what he meant.

So soft a poem, yet so loud a call – I do consider this work sheer genius.