Explain what you understand about the first stanza?
+A color slide shows a positive image in color.
Introduction to Poetry
by Billy Collins
I ask them to take a poemand hold it up to the lightlike a color slide +or press an ear against its hive.I say drop a mouse into a poemand watch him probe his way out,or walk inside the poem’s roomand feel the walls for a light switch.I want them to waterskiacross the surface of a poemwaving at the author’s name on the shore.But all they want to dois tie the poem to a chair with ropeand torture a confession out of it.They begin beating it with a hose
to find out what it really means.
- Explain what you understand about the first stanza?
- Why does Collins use a hive as a metaphor?
- Explain the meaning of having the reader waterski?
- Explain why Billy Collins ends the poem in the way he does.
- Explain in a well written paragraph how this poem fits into all the other things you have read about poetry.