Billy Collins Introduction To Poetry Summary

In Billy Collins poem, Introduction to Poetry, a teacher attempts to educate students on how to approach the analysis of a poem. On a more complex level, the poem illustrates that the art of poetry is full of life, variety, enjoyment, and structure, which should be admired, explored, and appreciated. The use of metaphors is the dominant technique of the work, appearing in every stanza of the poem. A sense of structure and openness is created through the teacher’s comparisons. In stanza three, the poem is shaped and constructed into something the students can go inside of, rather than a two-dimensional paper. Like a "mouse" in a maze "probes his way out", the teacher is suggesting the students do the same, to explore the text of the poem. Another metaphor is made in stanza four, as the teacher invites the students to search the poems walls for the "light switch" that will bring everything to sense, and give them the answer they are searching for. As the poem becomes three-dimensional, it gives the poem a physical space, for the students to wander and get the full experience of the poem. The …show more content…
Not only does poetry include an endless variety of subject matter, but also an endless diversity of interpretations. However, with the great array of interpretations possible, it is easy to get lost and trapped searching for a deeper meaning, which is exactly what the teacher warns the students of. All the teacher asks is for the students to "water-ski across the surface", acknowledging the author "on the shore", not to dive into the depths of the water and never return. Imagining the poem as a hive full of honeybees to which you must listen to, or as a color slide to which you must "hold up to the light", illustrates the approach that the teacher wants the students to take, and the priority to enjoy the beauty of the