Introduction to Poetry

[lapin_agile]

I've felt stubbornly prosaic all week and couldn't make myself look for poems to post. However, today's Poem-A-Day reminded me of another one I really like:

'Introduction to Poetry' by Billy CollinsI ask them to take a poem

Comments

[ex_mezzanine600]

Thank-you for posting these. I've subscribed to the poem-a-day thing, but I like these together.

I'm taking my last poetry class this semester, and I wish my prof would read these. He keeps talking about Donne's work as though you have to be particularly brilliant to understand it. And the first poem made me laugh, and a little bit sad, because that's how all class discussion on poetry go. Probably guilty of it myself ...

[lapin_agile]

I agree. Collins' issues a really interesting invitation to readers to experience and enjoy his poems without worrying overmuch what he meant by them or what they might be construed to mean by others. (That's how I take the waving at the author's name on the shore bit, anyway.)

I can't decide quite whether the "they" in his poem points to students or critics; both, I suppose, but it reads differently if you take it to be about student anxiety over reading/writing papers about poetry ('but what does it mean?!') or see it as an author's resentment of literary criticism.

[ex_mezzanine600]

Same here about the 'waving to the author's name.' That's one of my favorite literary theories condensed into two lines :) I do get tired of discussing what the author thinks, instead of what the text says to us as readers. Like trying to do some crazy reverse engineering or something :)

I thought 'student' first just because the title sounds like a course, and I'm currently a student myself. But now that you mention it, I can see the 'course' title as a stab at more mature critics - the irony of providing an introduction for those who (theoretically) know the material best? Regardless, I love the imagery, and visualizing the friendly and the antagonistic approaches to poetry.

[lapin_agile]

Collins might approve of (metaphorically) putting a poem in a blender to make an energy smoothie of it!