Introduction to Poetry

by 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.

LOTS (Lower Order Thinking Skills)

I.

Read the poem. Then answer the following questions:

1. What does the poet want you to do with a poem? (Choose five of them and copy the
words out of the poem)
a. _____________________________________________
b. _____________________________________________
c. _____________________________________________
d. _____________________________________________
e. _____________________________________________

2. For each of the phrases used in the poem, write next to it the sense you use to do
the action:
(hearing, touch, smell, taste, sight)
a.
b.
c.
d.

hold it up to the light: __________________________

press an ear to: _______________________________
feel the walls: ________________________________
watch him probe his way out:____________________

3. What is the author saying here about how you should read a poem?
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________
4. What do people usually do to poems? (copy out of poem)
a. _____________________________________________
b. _____________________________________________
c. _____________________________________________

II.

Close your eyes and listen to the poem again.

Imagine the actions, the feelings, the images in your head.

III.

Now, watch the youtube:

Is this how you imagined the poem? If not, what did you imagine that was different.
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________