Introduction to Poetry

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.
-Billy Collins

I really enjoyed this poem, it was very amusing. I liked the personification that was used to make the poem more life like. I also found the ending very amusing becasue in AP Lit we were told not to beat the poem with a hose and here that is what they were doing. If it hadnt been for this class I would have taken a total new meaning from this poem. I also noticed that there were 3 cuplings in the 3rd 4th and last stanza. The way that this poem is broken up is very unsual, but effective. It slowly tells a story with only 5 sentences. All in all a very amusing sort of poem.