In Billy Collins’ “Introduction to Poetry,” he uses imagery to describe reading a poem with activities people are familiar with. For example, in line 2-3, he claims he wants the reader to “Hold it up to the light / like a color slide.” A color slide is a small rectangle of film that — held up to a projector — reveals an image. If the reader took a written poem and held it up to the light, there wouldn’t be much of a difference. However, if they looked at the poem as a metaphorical color slide, then they would be able to realize that, like a color slide, a poem holds images and information. He is asking the reader to read poems in a different way than they usually would. Another example is when Collins says: “I want them to waterski / across
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The first line “Ink runs from the corners of my mouth,” gives the reader the first impression that the character is not entirely human. This imagery is almost like a dog foaming from the mouth; however, in this case, it is ink. We see dogs later in the poem when Strands says “The dogs are on the basement stairs and coming up. / Their eyeballs roll” (9-10). The reader can imagine dogs with ink running from their mouths coming up the stairs in a rabid –like manner. There is a sense of madness. The poetry has changed the reader so much that they have become “drunk” with the poem. The last line states “I romp with joy in the bookish dark” (18). The reader can imagine a dog pouncing and jumping around in a library. The reader, who has morphed into a dog-like creature, is excited and overjoyed from the poetry they have read. It has changed them. With all of the imagery from the poem combined, we, as readers, can imagine a person, who has morphed into a crazed dog, romping around in a library. They are full of joy from what they have read. The librarian doesn’t understand this. Her fear and confusion are displayed by the way Strands portrays she. “She walks with her hands in her dress […] She does not understand. / When I get on my knees and lick her hand, / she screams” (6, 13-15). This imagery give the reader a clear idea of a woman who doesn’t understand what is
The first line “Ink runs from the corners of my mouth,” gives the reader the first impression that the character is not entirely human. This imagery is almost like a dog foaming from the mouth; however, in this case, it is ink. We see dogs later in the poem when Strands says “The dogs are on the basement stairs and coming up. / Their eyeballs roll” (9-10). The reader can imagine dogs with ink running from their mouths coming up the stairs in a rabid –like manner. There is a sense of madness. The poetry has changed the reader so much that they have become “drunk” with the poem. The last line states “I romp with joy in the bookish dark” (18). The reader can imagine a dog pouncing and jumping around in a library. The reader, who has morphed into a dog-like creature, is excited and overjoyed from the poetry they have read. It has changed them. With all of the imagery from the poem combined, we, as readers, can imagine a person, who has morphed into a crazed dog, romping around in a library. They are full of joy from what they have read. The librarian doesn’t understand this. Her fear and confusion are displayed by the way Strands portrays she. “She walks with her hands in her dress […] She does not understand. / When I get on my knees and lick her hand, / she screams” (6, 13-15). This imagery give the reader a clear idea of a woman who doesn’t understand what is