Introduction to Poetry

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1988

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Summary

Poem Analysis

Background

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Themes

The Danger of Overanalyzing

Collins views overanalyzing as the antithesis to appreciating poetry. He demonstrates the dangers of overanalyzing a poem by frontloading “Introduction to Poetry” with extremely positive imagery. Repeated comparisons are made between poetry and joyful sensory experiences like waterskiing to force readers to remain in the moment that Collins conjures with figurative language. Readers are therefore prompted to focus less on finding the correct interpretation of the poem as an academic endeavor, and more on experiencing the poem as a piece of art.

All of the stanzas and lines that make up “Introduction to Poetry” air on the side of brevity, leaving little to no room to overanalyze on the basis that there simply is not much there. The longest line of the poem is made up of a mere nine words (Line 13), and the shortest is four words (Line 3). The longest stanzas are only three lines in length (Stanzas 1, 5, and 6), and the shortest is but one (Stanza 2). This brevity, however, does not mean “Introduction to Poetry” is not complex. On the contrary, Collins’s use of purposefully short stanzas and lines illustrates this theme through the poem’s construction speaking directly to the argument the content is making.

Methods of Teaching

Billy Collins presents a pedagogy, or method of teaching a specific academic subject, in “Introduction to Poetry” that stands in direct opposition to that of the American education system. Collins, writing in the American context, uses this poem as a pulpit to express distain for the fact that the unencumbered childlike wonder of exploration that existed at younger levels of schooling has been all together eradicated from places of higher education in the United States.

The academic culture present within the United States is result oriented, and Collins is critical of the fact that this method of teaching cannot be successfully mapped onto every subject. English pedagogy in particular suffers under a result-oriented approach because art—whether it be a 500-page novel or 10-line poem—requires patience to study, it requires students to take their time to find their own answers and interpretations (of which there could be many).

This theme spans the entirety of the poem because the speaker (“I”) is a professor, attempting to teach the students of the poem with this pedagogy in mind (Line 1). Line 11 in particular shows another facet of this method of teaching: The death of the author. French literary critic and theorist Roland Barthes’s seminal essay, “The Death of the Author,” is directly alluded to when the speaker asserts that students should “waterski / across the surface of a poem / waving at the author’s name on the shore” (Lines 9-11). With this allusion in mind, Collins argues that, because there is no way to know exactly what the intended meaning of any piece of literature is, the author becomes secondary to any conclusions students may draw, sitting far away on the shore of the poem (see: Further Reading “Further Literary Resources”).

Professor Versus Student Perceptions of Poetry

The speaker of “Introduction to Poetry” laments that students focus too much of their energy on ringing one meaning out of a poem and too little of their energy on actually enjoying the words right in front of them. Collins shows the disparity between the speaker’s perception and experience of poetry and that of the students through the tonal shift from Stanza 5 to Stanza 6 (see: Poem Analysis). Despite the speaker’s efforts to change the students’ perceptions of poetry across the first five stanzas, the speaker is unsuccessful because of the cognitive dissonance, or the inconsistent thoughts, beliefs, and attitudes, that go unrecognized in the classroom.

Collins exposes that while the students have the capacity to understand poetry in the way that their professor (the speaker) does, they first need to work to unlearn all of the old academic habits they are placing on poetry. The professor, who experiences and therefore teaches poetry as an imaginative, playful subject, harps on his own ideas of how poetry ought to be experienced, and therefore, is not getting through to the students who view the same subject as rigid and formulaic (a product of their rigorous education up until this point).

The frustrating ending of “Introduction to Poetry” shows that no progress will be made for professor or student unless a middle ground is reached first.