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  • Essay / The poet's conflict of frustration in "Introduction to Poetry"

    AP English Literature and CompositionIntroduction to Poetry ExplanationBilly Collin's poem, Introduction to Poetry, dramatizes the conflict of frustration of poets when their work is over- analyzed instead of being appreciated. Specifically, the narrator of this poem highlights the author's intention to provide open-ended messages when writing poetry while the audience fails to properly appreciate the poetry, instead viewing it as an intellectual burden. This struggle is illustrated by the personifications and shocking images in the last two stanzas of "[tying] the poem to a chair with a rope/and [torturing] a confession to get out of it...and [torturing] a confession to get out of it." These highly charged descriptions show how disappointed poets are when they realize that their poetry requires student readers to understand the poems rather than take the time to appreciate them. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an Original Essay The first and second stanzas provide sensory images to reflect the variety of poetry that exists in the world. Using visual images to note that students are "holding [the poems] up to the light/like a color slide" or auditory images such as "[pressing] an ear to its beehive," the poem's character illustrates how poems can be subjective. Just as there are millions of colors, there are millions of interpretations of poems and one must be excited about all these possibilities instead of exhausting oneself to find “the one true meaning.” This painful but futile search for the so-called true meaning that literary writers prescribe is further emphasized by comparing readers' analyzes to "[dropping a mouse] and watching it probe its way out." This metaphor effectively explains how readers are lost when examining poetry. Currently, poetry is a maze for many readers, which can be great for re-reading and trying new options to discover new interpretations like "[feeling] the walls for a switch", but should also be avoided due to the confusion that the public does not like. The particular use of “switch” highlights how poems can change meaning and expose new details as it is read. The character of the poem directly states the purpose of the poetry by "[wanting] them [readers] to water ski across the surface of a poem." The diction of "water skiing" shows how the audience should enjoy the poem for what it is, on the surface like a wave and below the surface like the ocean, but without systematically diving deep into the ocean right away. Readers should first wade through the waves for a while. and fully absorb the beauty of the poem, then indulge in the pleasure of individualistic analysis, as highlighted by the comparison to the exciting sport of water skiing. Keep in mind: this is just a sample. .Get a custom paper now from our expert writers.Get a custom essayThe poem finally exhibits unique structural features such as several short stanzas and free verse Lack of rigid organization or adherence to a rhyme scheme may imply the. freedom that poets want to express in their works, that each poem can have multiple meanings and must not be reduced to a particular analysis, contrary to what some teachers or professors would like to force. students to “dig deeper” to find meaning that never really..