Introduction to Poetry
Billy Collins
I ask them to take a poem
and hold it up to the light
like a color slide
or press an ear against its hive.
I say drop a mouse into a poem
and watch him probe his way out,
or walk inside the poem's room
and feel the walls for a light switch.
I want them to waterski
across the surface of a poem
waving at the author's name on the shore.
But all they want to do
is tie the poem to a chair with rope
and torture a confession out of it.
They begin beating it with a hose
to find out what it really means.
Everyone answer both prompts. Don't look at anyone else's answer before writing your answer to the first prompt.
1. What does this poem sound like? Supply a simile (for example, "It sounds like a nursery rhyme" or "it sounds like someone walking on crutches" or "it sounds like a parrot squawking." Try to be accurate to you own experience. Don't worry about being thought outlandish.
2. What are the five single most important words in this poem, in your opinion? After listing them, explain why in the case of ONE of the words.
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18 comments:
This sounds like a mother talking to her children during a long car ride, while it is so hot outside and they are about to run out of gas so they cannot turn the airconditioning on.
The words are:
drop
inside
surface
tie
torture: I thought that it was necesarry to incorperate theses words because they described what was happening to the poem in each circumstance. I thought the word torture explained how they were not acting with kindness when they tied the poem to the chair, they knew what they wanted from it and they knew how to get it.
Hey everyone,
This poem to me sounds like fire crackling in the firplace as rain is tapping on the window panes.
My words are:
torture
beating
waving
press
probe
The most interesting word to me has to be probe. Usually probing happens when someone is examining something very percisely and in this context it means to find or explore, to find a way out. This is a very interesting way to use this word, however in this context it works fully.
Thanks!
This poem sounds like a mother singing a lullyby to her baby.
My five words are:
1.Light
2.Poem
3.Author
4.Confession
5.Surface
I think that the word "Poem" is important because "Poem" is used a lot. The word "poem" is used 5 times. Maybe the author, Billy Collins like using the word "Poem" in his poem.
This poem sounds like an interview to me. Like a person who teaches poetry or the study of words or any type of artist is being asked their approach or technique to discovering meaning. Yet not only does it sound like this person is being interview but it sounds to me like they have overcome something in this field they speak so passionately. That in a weird way THEY have done what disgusts them about what other people are doing. Thus a deep understanding and an even deeper critique.
The five words for me would be:
Inside
Feel
Torture
Beating
Means.
I like the word inside and feel. I feel this person wants us (the readers) to get inside what we observing. That we should get inside and FEEL it. Not comment on it. To become immersed in the essence of it and not make it dull and distant. That we should become one and let what we are observing just be what it is.
A note from the teacher--
you're all doing a good job on the "sounds like" part! I just wanted to point out though that a couple of people said (about Kubla Khan) that it sounded like "an epic story" etc., which it does, but that's more about the content of the poem. I'm actually going for the the sound, as in what does the SOUND of this poem (or series of sounds that make up this poem)SOUND like?
Megumi's example:
"Somehow, this poem sounds like a washing machine. The flow of this poem is like the sounds of a washing machine, ga-shing ga-shin."
--is a good one.
When it comes to explaining your "important word," try to say something interpretive about the poem. Again, Megumi's example works:
"My five words are measureless, sank, tumult, deep and dome. Tumult is most important as it represents upheaval. Kubla Khan envisions life with happiness, beauty, peace and tranquility; however, in reality, his life is surrounded by turmoil, uproar and darkness." Good luck!
This poem sounds like my elementary school teacher reading the class a poem for reading time.
My words are:
probe- its interesting how the poet chooses to use the word probe rather than a word like find or walk.He or she chooses to use different words that are a lot more sophisticated.
confession
beating
hive
press
It sounds like hands banging on drums; the beat of the sound is rapid yet commanding.
Want
Light
Inside
Beating
Name
Want is the most significant word for it represents desire, need and greed. The narrator wants people to research and understand about it instead of interrogating and torturing it. The poeple wanted to torture it because they wanted to know the poem, not understand it.
To me this sounds like a tiny insect like a ladybug flying around and experiencing a variety of things and enjoying the freedom and then flying into a spider web and getting caught. It's like the music that would go along with what was going on inside the insect head as it flew around.
My words are: torture, probe, surface, beating, confession.
Confession is an interesting word because it normally means that something was being hidden in the first place, that there is something to tell. It is also usually not something you say at random, but instead is brought out through some sort of intense situation.
Hey,
This play sounds like a discussion. By a discussion I imply that this poem craves a discussion, or at least the author does. When the author offers to all the different things he would like to do with a poem. I view it as if he is asking, "argue with what the poem says, have an opinion." I think the author asks people to not just accept the way of life but look all around it and answer back to those who speak to you. For my five words I chose walk, drop, waterski, torture, and beating. All of these words have something in common. They are all used as verbs in the poem, describing what you, the reader, should do with the poem or to the poem. I think that is what this poem is about and why it is important.
Hey
So, when I first read this poem, it was as if a leaf full of condensation was releasing droplets of water into a pond and each drop had a rhythm and beat to each sound it created.
My five words are : Confession, Surface, Torture, Probe and Poem. The most peculiar of these 5 is confession. Usually when one confesses something, I like to think of it as a love confession or confessing to a sin or something of that nature. It's interesting to have this being used in this poem in this context.
Mason
Hello.
The poem sounds like a monologue or a soliloquy in which the person talking has all the answers and no one else does.
Slide
Hive
Probe
Torture
Beating
*Torture insinuates a very extreme emotion, usually pain and suffering, and this definitely sets the mood for the poem or at least for the stanza. Also, it relates to the sense of being all knowing when no one else around because in a sense the person who is all-knowing has a very strong emotion and a strong need for the other people around to understand.
When I read this poem I think of the sounds of someone typing on a computer keyboard. It has that quality of a really precise consistency followed by a short pause every few lines. (to continue with the metaphor, while the typist decides what to type next, or uses the mouse to click something.) Then I feel the consistency resume again, just as a typist would. The sounds I'm hearing as I type this are what I hear when I read the poem.
My 5 words are: probe, torture, surface, hive, and tie.
They all show action or metaphors that personify the poem, but I'll discuss "surface." I like that the author used that word because technically, the surface of a poem would be the flat upward facing part of the page. Here he uses it in a metaphor with water, and is using it to talk about the levels of meaning in the poem. By using "surface," the waterskiing metaphor really became clear and emphasized, allowing me to visualize it.
this poem sounds like the movement of in and out and buzzing, squiggling, worming, crawling, etc.
-color slide
-probe
-surface
-beating
-press
I think probe is the most important word because it describes my overall sound. it's like looking around, going in and about. and it is an usual word. Mostly describing creatures habits.
The poem to me sounds like a harmonica. It has an occasional rush of air where the harmonic crescendos and the sounds ring out.
My five favorite words are waterski, confession, beating, surface, torture.
I like the word confession because it is a word that can have a double connotation. Confession can make one think of doom and loss because of the coincidence of the confession, but it also connotes relief and happiness for getting it all out in the open. It is interesting that a word with such diverse meaning is used to describe a poem. It certainly popped out at me.
PS last night I did not read the directions close enough and didn't say why for one of my reasons. my bad.
~Maggie
When i first read this poem i thought it was about a person forcing their children to become poets. But as i read it a few more times i realized that this poem actually has a different meaning. The author is sending out a message about how he hates how everybody over analyzes poems. Everybody thinks about the poem too much and fills there head with nonsense. In actuality the author feels that poems are quite literal and do not need special outstide of the box thinking all the time. I honestly dont feel that there is a simile to describe this poem. It is just about a guy venting himself through literature rather then action.
5 important/interesting words are hive, probe, confession, torture, and waterski. I love how Billy Collins describes the readers trying to analyze the poem as them torturing a confession out of the poem. It really provides a vivid image on how readers are over analtzing and not taking poems for their literal meanings.
This sounds like a poor boy who is misunderstood and not listened to yet still knows more than any "grown" person could ever imagine.
Important words= I ask, I say, I want, But, they
These words are most important when seen in conjunction with one another. The fact that he/she knows what is the true reason for art is so clearly isolated when the bright lights of "they" come on.
This is pall
1) I think this poem sounds like a speech given by the main character in some sort of italian mob movie.
Greetings, this is pall
1. Probe
2. Feel
3. Torture
4. Beating
5. Surface
I say that 'Probe' is a very important word because it describes the kind of work that must be done to fully analzye a work of written art.
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