Digging into a Poem

When it comes to a poem, there are people who tell you to rip it apart. Dig deep into the lines and the words, and tell me that poem means, and tell me what it doesn't, and then I'll tell you that you're completely wrong, and we'll both be right . . . This is why I don't like poetry, but also why it can be fun. Words can have a thousand meanings, and this post will demonstrate that with a single sonnet.

Art and Poetry

I have attended a few live poetry readings and poetry slams, and they all  -- no matter the difference in venue -- carried some similarities. For starters, when I arrived I found a place to sit, and then I never had to move until it was over. The poets would move to the front of the room one by one and share their poems. All I had to do was listen. At the poetry reading that was held in the MOA on BYU campus, there were two added dimensions to the experience: Mobility and art.

A Messy Mass of Prewriting

1. Introduction to Poetry by Billy Collins is a concise poem that highlights the insights an instructor wishes his students would grasp about how to analyze poetry. This instructor is the narrator and he uses this poem to outline the items of poetry that he deems most important. An important item about this poem is that the narrator relies heavily on metaphors to create the idea that he seeks to construct.

While certainly poetic, this poem differs significantly from the other poems in the "Ars Poetica" genre. Billy Collins' poem is more concise, more compact, and altogether feels a little bit more like prose.This is perhaps a manifestation of the narrator attempting to make his knowledge easier to impart.

At its most basic level this poem is really just a series of metaphors used to describe what analyzing poetry should be like. None of these are necessarily more complex than any of the others, nor do they seem to build on each other in any significant way. They are simply different ways of looking at the analysis process.

2. (Policy Claim) Introduction to Poetry by Bills Collins should not be read as an instructional guide on analyzing poetry.

(Definition Claim) Introduction to Poetry by Billy Collins is a poem that showcases one instructor's most valuable insights into the process of analyzing poetry.

(Comparison Claim) Introduction to Poetry by Billy Collins is unlike many of the other Poems in the "Ars Poetica" tradition, in that it is more straightforward and prose-like.

(Evaluation Claim) Introduction to Poetry by Billy Collins is a wonderful poem for the individual desiring insights into how to analyze poetry well.

(Casual Claim) Introduction to Poetry by Billy Collins is a poem that helps individuals understand better the way that poetry is meant to be analyzed.

So This is a Sonnet

Concerning Sonneting by Gideon Burton:

          To find a form sustaining me enough
          to hold, to hold unweathered over time,
          an instrument both sonorous and tough,
          with sturdy words shaped smooth by ending rhymes.
          Not every patterned art nor instrument
          makes time both tow and flow in even turn,
          So many words are brutish implements,
          stutter-pulsed or bruising with their runes.
          And there are books and symphonies whose length
          is little argument, while most haiku
          are pearls so tightly wound their strength
          invisibles itself within their youth.
               I've found a form who forms me line by line;
               she's brief, yet most my thoughts she can refine.

Taking a deeper look at "Introduction to Poetry"

This blog post is mostly about free writing and taking notes on a certain poem. So here goes:

Responding to Poetry

Billy Collins - Intro to Poetry

1. This poem feels very straightforward and almost prose-like. Business-like is another synonym I might give to it. Each line is short and contains just a kernel of information. This accomplishes the poem's purpose though.

2.This poem hands out loads of expectations right from the start. The title literally tells what the poem will be about. The reader automatically understands that they will be reading something that introduces and teaches poetry in some way, which is exactly what happens.

3.The poem begins with the author asking someone to take a poem and hold it up to the light. Presumably the individuals he is asking this of is his students. Already however the meaning is clear that he is talking about poetry analysis. Later he becomes much more metaphoric when he mentions pressing an ear to the hive of the poem, dropping a mouse into the poem, and water-skiing across the surface of the poem. All these things are not literal items that would occur in the analysis of a poem.

4.There are a few ambiguities in this poem. A color slide is something usually used in film which can be seen through, thus aiding the metaphor of  "seeing" through a poem. He also mentions waving at an author's name on the shore. This is ambiguous because no particular author is mentioned since this method of analysis can be applied to any poem.

5.The poem speaks about an educator attempting to teach his students how to analyze poetry, and his troubles with helping them understand. The narrator is a character, as well as his students, who could be any number. No indication is given of the setting of the poem, but it is generally inferred that it occurs in some sort of educational environment. The plot of the poem mostly resembles around the method described by the narrator of how to analyze a poem, and then how his students fail to grasp what he teaches.

6.I believe this poem matters and is significant because it provides an opportunity to see into a person's view of the deeper nature and meaning of poetry. There is value in this that can be gained by others. Presumably the narrator's intention is for others to make use of his wisdom where his own students did not. The issue and conflict of helping a younger generation to learn wisdom is an age old issue and has relevance in all spheres of activity. The conflict does not really have any resolution. The poem ends with a statement of the narrator's implied frustration at his pupil's inability to learn what he is trying to teach them.

7.The poem is organized succinctly. It is largely condensed with short lines that contain little information individually. The form of the poem essentially allows for the reader to take in bits of information gradually as they read. One idea is introduced, then another, like baby steps. This allows the poem to flow in a smooth manner that generally aids with the comprehension of the poem itself.

8.As far as I can tell this poem generally adheres to the conventions of the this type of poem. It does not seem overly unique or dramatic in any way. Indeed, based off the content and title of the poem, one can infer that it was actually meant to adhere closely to convention.

How Hollow Can Also Be Happy

In high school, they made me read poetry. They made me learn lines and stanzas and rhyming and free verse, but they never taught me how to like poetry. They never convinced me that I could love it, either. Just when I believed that poetry would be the bane of my love for literature, I found a poet whose broken style and dark imagery suited my taste perfectly. That poet is well known, but special to me: T. S. Eliot.  

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