Billy Collins: An Introduction
Billy Collins is an influential, famous poet based in the United States. His work is known to be humorous, witty, and can encourage people to love poetry. Collins published the poem "Introduction to Poetry" in 1988 in a book called "The Apple that Astonished Paris". In his work, "Introduction to Poetry", he tries to explain the different ways in which he would like his students to view poetry to understand it easily. This paper will explosively analyse the poem, "Introduction to Poetry".
Compassion and Seriousness in "Introduction to Poetry"
The title of the poem gives the reader a clue of what the poem is about. In the poem "Introduction to Poetry", the poet displays compassion and seriousness. Collins touches on his personal experience of teaching poetry which forms the central part of the poem. It is interesting how he uses different emotions to express his feelings towards his students' understanding of poetry. He feels frustrated by their lack of longing to find the meaning of poetry. In the poem, the only voice present is that of the poet. The poem has a scholastic feel because the speaker tries to get "them" to approach a poem. The speaker is a teacher, and "them" seem to be students. The tone is somewhat didactic because it seems the speaker functions as a teacher in front of the audience giving instructions on how to understand poetry. For example, the speaker uses "I want", "I say", "I ask"... The author of the poem uses an instructional tone as he sensitively persuades the reader to understand poetry. The tone of the poet changes in the fifth and sixth stanza when he describes how the students try bluntly to appreciate poetry.
Use of Literary Devices
Literary devices are used throughout the poem. Collins uses metaphors such as, "or press an ear against its hive" (Collins 58). Collins compares the act of reading a poem to that of listening to honeybees. The beehive appears to be dangerous just like a new poem which is unfamiliar to a reader. The metaphor encourages the reader to listen to the message in the poem carefully. Also, the speaker uses the metaphor to encourage the reader to view poetry as water which has an element of felling, romance, and emotion. It brings the element of fun and joy hence the reader should enjoy and feel poetry.
A simile is used in the poem to compare different things. For example, "light like a colour" is used to illustrate that the reader must see through the colour slide which is the poem. For one to be able to see a picture, light must pass through the colour slide hence the reader's attention is called to focus on the poem to understand its meaning. Imagery is also used in the poem. The speaker uses some statements which relate the poem to a prisoner. Confession is figuratively used to symbolise the meaning of a poem. The poet uses imagery in "They begin beating it with a hose" to show the force with which readers force meaning out of a poem.
The Authenticity of "Introduction to Poetry"
The real voice in the poem brings about its authenticity. It is a "found poem" with no fictitious verses. The poem entails the things Collins says to his readers about how poetry should be analyzed. Collins has been able to maintain the poetic tone in explaining his ideas which are realistic in the daily life of handling poetry.
Work Cited
Collins, Billy. The Apple That Astonished Paris: Poems. University of Arkansas Press, 2014
