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 * || =Introduction to Poetry=

Billy Collins
I ask them to take a poem and hold it up to the light like a color slide or press an ear against its hive. I say drop a mouse into a poem and watch him probe his way out, or walk inside the poem's room and feel the walls for a light switch. I want them to waterski across the surface of a poem waving at the author's name on the shore. But all they want to do is tie the poem to a chair with rope and torture a confession out of it. They begin beating it with a hose to find out what it really means.

from //The Apple that Astonished Paris//, 1996 University of Arkansas Press, Fayetteville, Ark. [|//Permissions information//]. Copyright 1988 by Billy Collins. All rights reserved. Reproduced with permission. ||

Skim quickly through the poem and write your initial responses using the Discussion Tab at the top of the page What words and images stand out for you? What is your emotional reaction to the poem (e.g., surprise, dismay, anger)?