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Analysis Of Billy Collins Introduction To Poetry

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Billy Collins’ poem “Introduction to Poetry” provides a coded guide to help beginning readers understand how to unlock the mysteries of poetry. The speaker urges readers to read critically with an emphasis on the poem’s structure, sound, and artistic merit, but cautions them against getting so caught up in the search for meaning that they forget to enjoy the poem. Poetry can be a challenge to read for many, and Billy Collins wants to help students overcome this challenge. When reading poetry it’s easy for us to try and overanalyze the text trying to find its deeper meaning. Collins theme of “Introduction to Poetry” is to enjoy reading poetry and not to “torture a confession out of it”. When Collins says this he means don’t force something out of the poem that’s simply not there. Yes, analyze the poem but don’t look so deeply …show more content…

Colling says “I” referring to teachers and “them” referring to students so that it can be more relatable. In the first stanza Collins uses the perspective of sight or the point of view of an artist by saying “hold it to the light like a color slide”. In this smile light represents reason. Collins is saying reason with the poem, look at its parts and how they fit together and see what it means. Stanza two is a metaphor that represents sound or the point of view of a musician. It reads “or press an ear against its hive” Collins is telling the reader to see what all the buzz is about in poetry and read it. Like a bees hive there is a lot going on in poems. Bees work like the reader does to understand every part at hand. Collins wants readers to just listen to poetry and not over analyze. Stanza three represents touch and a scientist point of view. Science and poetry can be compared in the way that you have to figure poetry and science out while going in blind. Your observations in both cases is the key to figuring it out. You are a stranger to this idea and have to give up

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