? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?

“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 water ski 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.”

o Who wrote this?

o Who are they “talking to”?

o What is this about?

o How do they feel about what they are saying?

o How does it make you feel?

o Why did they write it?

Introduction to Poetry by Billy Collins

I ask them to take a poemand hold it up to the lightlike a color slide

or press an ear against its hive.

I say drop a mouse into a poemand watch him probe his way out,

or walk inside the poem's roomand feel the walls for a light switch.

I want them to water skiacross the surface of a poemwaving at the author's name on the

shore.

But all they want to dois tie the poem to a chair with ropeand torture a confession out of it.

They begin beating it with a hoseto find out what it really means. 

o Who is the speaker?

o Who is the author?

o Who is the audience?

o What is the tone?

o What is the mood?

o What is the theme?

Attempt to Define Poetry

o Poetry is one kind of language/literary language(other kinds of language are informative and persuasive)

o Poetic language is use by poets to create “significant new experiences for readers”

o Readers may “ gain a greater awareness and understanding of their world”

What is poetry?

Poetry is:

o A universal, ancient language

o Written, read, listened to in all countries by all kinds of people

o Difficult to define

o Says more and says it more intensely than ordinary language

Another Example

Supposed we are interested in eagles—If we want to acquire information about eagles we can search the web.

We find out that eagles belong to the Falcon family—characterized by imperforate nostrils, legs of medium length, a hooked bill, claws roundly curved and sharp, their length is about 3 feet and their wingspan 7 feet . . .

True—we have learned facts about the eagle, but have missed its . . .

Eagles

. . . . . Lonely majesty, its power and its grandeur

A poem makes the eagle a living creature

The Eagle by Alfred, Lord Tennyson

He claps the crag with crooked hands;Close to the sun in lonely lands,Ringed with the azure world, he stands.

The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls;He watches from his mountain walls, And like a thunderbolt he falls.