Poetry Precis 1- "Introduction to Poetry"

      In Billy Collin's "Introduction to Poetry", Collins uses exaggerated metaphors and fictional ideas to convey the message that poetry is not something that is meant to be torturous as he presents his points in a slightly sarcastic yet passionate tone. The speaker begins in the first stanza by introducing his topic in the first line saying "I ask them to take a poem and hold it up to the light like a color slide", metaphorically telling the reader that he or she believes that poetry should be viewed in a way that its underpinnings can be exposed so that its readers can see it for its true beauty. The following stanza continues with this theme as the speaker adds more metaphors that explain how poetry should be explored, for example "drop a mouse into a poem and watch him probe his way out" and "walk inside the poem's room and feel the walls for a light switch." All of these metaphors share a common meaning which the speaker hopes to relay and that is that poems are meant to be explored in a free and nonrestrictive manner. The fourth stanza then takes a turn and says "But all they want to do is tie the poem to a chair with rope and torture a confession out of it" and the final ends with how "they begin beating it with a hose to find out what it really means". These last stanzas make the speaker's last point as they  explain that rather than interpreting poems in a natural and intellectually challenging way, readers of poetry seem to do the opposite when they try to force meaning out of poetry. By explaining the difference between digging for meaning and uncovering meaning in poetry, the speaker makes his message clear that poetry interpretation is not meant to be a torturous or harsh experience rather it should be an adventurous and enlightening journey.