A New Meaning Of Poetry

Arguably the most popular poet in America, Billy Collins provides readers with two types of poetry that is nothing like typical poetry. One of his unique styles is writing as if the poem could be read like a novel. The other type brings humor and whimsy to his work, yet he hints at a seriousness that lies beneath the surface. Both styles of poetry are easy to read, but take a second look to realize what the Collins is intending the reader to understand. Billy Collins is an exceptionally talented poet whose writing at first can be taken to be a simple comedy but when read more carefully, it can be interpreted as a far more complex script. First readings of the poems I Chop Some Parsley While Listening To Art Blakey's Version Of Three Blind

The poems “Introduction to Poetry”, “Poem”, “Poetry Should Ride the Bus”, “How Poetry comes to me”, “How I Discovered Poetry”, and “Making It in Poetry”. These poems express their author’s thoughts on poetry beautifully. Each author gives their own interpretation of what poetry is to them. However, each poem carries small differences and similarities. At the end, each poem has taught its readers a new meaning of poetry.

The title of the poem can be compared to a beginner English class, such as Poetry 101. Introduction to Poetry is about a teacher’s frustration towards the simple mistake that inexperienced readers make when poetry is first introduced. Unable to read the poem properly, they often do not capture a poem’s natural beauty or message. Often frustration to interpreting certain pieces of writing leads to the animosity of poetry. In the poem Collins is contrasting two ways of reading a poem. The first opinion, which is advocated in the first five stanzas, is of the poet or teacher who describes how he would like readers to read the poem. The second opinion, which is condemned in the last two stanzas, is of the readers and students who want to find out as quickly as possible what the poem means.

|Spend about 1 hour on this section. Think carefully about the poems before you write your answer. |

In today’s modern view, poetry has become more than just paragraphs that rhyme at the end of each sentence. If the reader has an open mind and the ability to read in between the lines, they discover more than they have bargained for. Some poems might have stories of suffering or abuse, while others contain happy times and great joy. Regardless of what the poems contains, all poems display an expression. That very moment when the writer begins his mental journey with that pen and paper is where all feelings are let out. As poetry is continues to be written, the reader begins to see patterns within each poem. On the other hand, poems have nothing at all in common with one another. A good example of this is in two poems by a famous writer by

The Vacuum by Howard Nemerov talks about a widower and his late wife, and how he uses the vacuum as a symbol for her death. The poem expresses deep sorrow and sadness that derive from the loneliness of the speaker, after his other half’s passing away. Nemerov attempts to take his readers on a grief-stricken journey, by strategically employing figurative language (mainly personification, metaphor, simile, and alliteration), fractured rhyme schemes and turns in stanza breaks in the poem.

The beautiful thing about poetry is that it can be written in so many forms, about numerous topics and can have its own personalized sound. Billy Collins brings poetry to life in a simple and fun way that many poets never accomplish. It is obvious in the “Introduction to Poetry,” he is emphasizing the need for people to look into poetry in a different light and divulge into the true meaning instead of reading it in such a surface manner or over analyzing it. His work highlights the use of imagery bringing the words to life on the page, encouraging the reader to take it easy and enjoy the words of the poetry. His journey as U.S. Poet Laureate lead to students across America having access to a poem per day being shared at school, enhancing the knowledge and desire for poetry across the nation (Collins, “Poetry 180”). Although Collins’ approach to poetry was unconventional and focused on experience, he allows readers everywhere to feel his words - tangible and full of life.

Ted Kooser, the thirteenth Poet Laureate of the United States and Pulitzer Prize winner, is known for his honest and accessible writing. Kooser’s poem “A Spiral Notebook” was published in 2004, in the book Good Poems for Hard Times, depicting a spiral notebook as something that represents more than its appearance. Through the use of imagery, diction, and structure, Ted Kooser reveals the reality of a spiral notebook to be a canvas of possibilities and goes deeper to portray the increasing complexities in life as we age.

Billy Collins uses dark rooms, oceans, hives, color slides and mouse mazes to describe his poem “Introduction to Poetry”, but also a way to analyze poetry in general. Growing up, students are advised by teachers how to analyze poetry. The speaker of Introduction to Poetry, Billy Collins, attempts to guide the readers by teaching them a unique and appropriate way to analyze poetry. The use of personification and imagery, by the author, gives the readers a new perspective to interpret and find the significance in poetry. In this particular poem, the speaker does not want the reader to listen to the teachers of the reader’s past, “tie the poem to a chair with rope and torture a

2. What are the symbolic significances of the candy store in Lawrence Ferlinghetti's "The Pennycandystore Beyond the El" (Geddes, 318)?

Richard Blanco is a Cuban- American poet who was given the oppurunity to write an inaugaration poem for Barack Obama's second swearing-in. He wrote a poem titled "One Today" that praised the good and unique things about the United States and also the everyday people who's daily routines help to make America the proud country that it is.

Poetry can follow your life all the way through, from the innocence of a child, to the end of your days. The comfort, seduction, education, occasion and hope found in poems are elaborated in Poetry Should Ride the Bus by Ruth Forman. As the poem reads on, you not only travel through the life of a person from adolescence to being elderly through vivid imagery, but also hit on specific genres of poems through the personification of poetry as the characters in the stages of life. This poem’s genres hit on what poetry should do and be, by connecting the life many of us live.

Throughout the poem “Introduction to poetry” Collins explains his expectations as a poet about how people can appreciate a poem in a sense that is proper. He compares his suggestions with the reality of how students appreciate poems, which he describes to be very violent. He uses devices such as diction, personification and metaphor to illustrate two ways people appreciate poetry. One way is describe as his desires while the other is the reality, which is a violent

The Poem “Introduction to Poetry” is by Billy Collins, an English poet, and it is about how teachers often force students to over-analyze poetry and to try decipher every possible meaning portrayed throughout the poem rather than allowing the students to form their own interpretation of the poem based on their own experiences.

Billy Collins’s poem “The Dead” uses many poetic devices throughout the poem. The whole poem is an open form poem, meaning that it has no specific style, such as rhyming. The poem also personified, as the dead are animated, and they seem to be alive as they look down on the people of earth. Billy Collins has also thrown in some alliteration, line two has two s-words and it is “shoes or making a sandwich. . .”, the other example of alliteration that Collins put in was two b-words in line three “bottom boats of heaven. . .” throughout the poem, there is also examples of enjambment; as there is no break between lines.