Introduction to Poetry

This poem has been brought up once before in our class on the first day of school, and it came to mind maybe you put it back on the poem sheet to see how much we have matured in reading poems and to see if we have taken the tips from within the poem and properly use them. Billy Collins I believe wrote this poem to help teach poems in general, because I believe that he feels people dig to deep into poems and really try and pull out this great meaning when in a reality it had nothing to do with the poem. So he is try to get away from "beating it with a hose to find out what it really means" and just relax and read the poem as it should be because the true meaning lies right in the words the poet used. I really like line 7 when Collins says " or walk inside the poem's room and feel the walls for a light switch." After reading this I can really relate a lot because this is how I felt every time I read a poem. I felt that I had to make this great big claim of what was going on when really all I had to do was slow down turn on a light and just take the poem for what it is. I would have to say that this is one of my top favorite poems because for one its is simple and also because it teaches the keys to success in reading poems.