Introduction to poetry by Billy Collins and commentary

I ask them to take a poem
and hold it up to the light
like a coler 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.

I decided to put the poem here because i found it really interesting. Infact it gives us a good hint on how we should act in front of a poem.
The reaction i had, once i read the poem, was that of surprise beacuse while i was reading it the first thought that came to my mind was: what does this poem mean? And a smile came to my face when i saw that all the author wanted from me was exactly the opposite thing. I should have had an open mind, but most of all an open heart..if we think about it a poem is pretty much like a picture or a painting: with just few words, or few elements, it has to create an emotion inside you, but this is possible only if you let it.

This was my commentary. Now i would like to post also something that i found on the net: a commentary of the same poem of a 12 year old girl. I was astonished. If she did it all by herself she has a future ahead!

by Lily Chambers

Hey im 12 and my class had to write a critisism paragraph on this toshow what we think it means. this is mine: The author wants you tocarefully examine his poem but not to strangle it. By holding thecolored slide to the light means to see the brightest colors andstrongest meanings. He wants you to listen to the poems secrets likeyou `listen to a hive’. He wants you to put your thoughts insidethe poem and let them scurry around like a mouse inside of a maze. `Feelthe wall for a light switch,’ he wants you to gently feel the poem forand answer or idea. He has complete control over you when you read thepoem like the poem is the skies and the author is the boat. You waveto congratulate him and that’s all he needs and wants for you to do,to understand and thank him. But you shall not harm the poem or jumpto conclusions by tying it to a chair and hearing only what you want.Listen to the poem don’t destroy it.I got an A- on this one



I bet she did!!!

Hari