Introduction to Poetry

“Introduction to Poetry” by Billy Collins is the perfect description of how I was with poetry in the beginning of the year. Collins describes how he wants people to read a poem and talks about how a poem should be understood. “I say drop a mouse into a poem and watch him probe his way out,” meaning he asks readers to really get a sense for the poem, discover what it is about, and search for the meaning. “Or walk inside the poem’s room and feel the walls for a light switch.” By that I believe Collins is describing how a reader should feel the poem, touch the poem, and be able to feel the feelings the poet wanted to portray. “I want them to waterski across the surface of a poem waving at the author’s name on the shore.” Basically, the poet wants the reader to have fun with the poem, enjoy it like they would waterskiing, and not whine at the sight of a poem. Collins describes what I did at the beginning of the year so perfectly, “But all they want to do is tie the poem to a chair with a rope and torture a confession out of it.” This is crazy how true this statement is because it is like from a young age we have been taught that there is always one meaning to a poem and only one. But when you get older and the poems get more complicated one will find that there are many of ways any given poem can be interpreted. Some still don’t get that, and they are in constant search for the overall meaning, and then that is when poetry becomes no fun and groans fill the room at the sight of it. My Dad put it like this, “A poet is like a man who makes a very nice sports car. He wants you to feel the engine and it’s power, he wants you to enjoy it, and he wants you to discover what the car has to offer. But he doesn’twant you to buy it only to take it home and tear it apart because then you have missed the fun and have missed out on why he really made that car.” A poet does have meaning behind every poem, but it is their own meaning, and when they think of the readers they hope that they can come up with their own meaning and enjoy it rather than suffer through it… beating it with a hose to find out what it really means…