Billy Collins' "Introduction to Poetry"

After reading the poem "Introduction to Poetry" by Billy Collins, answer the following questions on a separate sheet of paper. Support each 3-5 sentence response with embedded text evidence.

1. What words and images stand out in this poem? Choose one that really speaks to you. What about it intrigued or appealed to you?
   
   
2. What do you think Collins is saying about the study of poetry? According to Collins, what is the real goal of reading poetry?
   
   
3. Compare stanzas 5 and 6. How does the humor used in these stanzas bring his theme to light?
   
   
4. “Introduction to Poetry” is divided into seven stanzas. Three of the stanzas have two lines and three of the stanzas have three lines. One stanza, stanza 2, only has one line. Did Collins make a mistake? Did he just get lazy? Why do you think Collins chose to make line 4 its own stanza? What effect does this structural decision have on the reading of the poem?
   
   
5. How would you describe the speaker's tone in the poem? Is this poem meant to be funny or serious? How are we meant to feel about the situation the speaker describes? How are we meant to feel about poetry by the end of the “Introduction”?
   
   
6. Why does Collins use personification when he describes “the poem” in the last two stanzas? What effect does the personification have on the poem's ending?
   
   
7. The speaker asks the students to “feel the [poem’s] walls for a light switch,” something to shed some light, illuminate, excite. Did you find any light switches in “Introduction to Poetry,” any places that made you happy, or inspired, or interested? Where were they (what lines or words), and what attracted you to them?
   
   

Question sources: here and here.

This Is Just to Say... Poem & Poster

Using William Carlos Williams' poem, below, as a guide, create your own "apology" poem.

Preserve Williams' three four-line stanzas, the anaphora (repetition of "so") at the end, and his tone. Write your poem on a single sheet paper and include a classroom-appropriate image (the subject matter of your poem must be classroom-appropriate, as well).

You are not limited to changing just the words in boldface below, but they are the most likely.

*   *   *

This Is Just To Say

I have eaten
the plums
that were in
the icebox

and which
you were probably
saving
for breakfast

Forgive me
they were delicious
so sweet
and so cold

      —by William Carlos Williams

Matthew Arnold's "Dover Beach"

If you were absent, please add the following terms to your literary terms dictionary:

Symbol:

Allegory:

Allusion:

or were assigned the poetry analysis assignment, please read the poem and respond to the following questions.

1. What is your understanding of the poem's meaning?
2. How did the connotations of the literary devices in the poem (simile, metaphor, onomatopoeia, anaphora, personification, allusion, rhyme scheme, etc.) help you arrive at your understanding?

Dover Beach
Matthew Arnold

The sea is calm to-night.
The tide is full, the moon lies fair
Upon the straits; on the French coast the light
Gleams and is gone; the cliffs of England stand;
Glimmering and vast, out in the tranquil bay.
Come to the window, sweet is the night-air!
Only, from the long line of spray
Where the sea meets the moon-blanched land,
Listen! you hear the grating roar
Of pebbles which the waves draw back, and fling,
At their return, up the high strand,
Begin, and cease, and then again begin,
With tremulous cadence slow, and bring
The eternal note of sadness in.

Sophocles long ago
Heard it on the Aegean, and it brought
Into his mind the turbid ebb and flow
Of human misery; we
Find also in the sound a thought,
Hearing it by this distant northern sea.

The Sea of Faith
Was once, too, at the full, and round earth's shore
Lay like the folds of a bright girdle furled.
But now I only hear
Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar,
Retreating, to the breath
Of the night-wind, down the vast edges drear
And naked shingles of the world.

Ah, love, let us be true
To one another! for the world, which seems
To lie before us like a land of dreams,
So various, so beautiful, so new,
Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light,
Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain;
And we are here as on a darkling plain
Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight,
Where ignorant armies clash by night.

Prosody, Rhyme and Other Poetry Details

Below is today's presentation. Get notes on Iambic Pentameter, Blank Verse and Free Verse from a friend.

Personal "Poetry" Poem

Fill in the blanks to create your own poem, based on Pablo Neruda's "Poetry." (see, here, for original poem)

And it was at that age ... ____________ arrived
in search of me. I don't know, I don't know where
it came from, from __________ or a ____________.
I don't know how or when,
no they were not voices, they were not
words, nor silence,
but from a ___________ I was _____________,
from the branches of night,
abruptly from the others,
among ____________   _____________
or returning alone,
there I was without a ___________
and it _____________ me.

Personal Response to Pablo Neruda's "Poetry"

After reading the poem, below, find a word or phrase that describes how you feel now, at the beginning of this school year. Copy down that word or phrase and then write why it applies to your life.

Poetry (1964)
by Pablo Neruda (1904-1973)

And it was at that age… Poetry arrived
in search of me. I don't know, I don't know where
it came from, from winter or a river.
I don't know how or when,
no they were not voices, they were not
words, nor silence,
but from a street I was summoned,
from the branches of night,
abruptly from the others,
among violent fires
or returning alone,
there I was without a face
and it touched me.

I did not know what to say, my mouth
had no way
with names,
my eyes were blind,
and something started in my soul,
fever or forgotten wings,
and I made my own way,
deciphering
that fire,
and I wrote the first faint line,
faint, without substance, pure
nonsense,
pure wisdom
of someone who knows nothing,
and suddenly I saw
the heavens
unfastened
and open,
planets,
palpitating plantations,
shadow perforated,
riddled
with arrows, fire and flowers,
the winding night, the universe.

And I, infinitesimal being,
drunk with the great starry
void,
likeness, image of
mystery,
felt myself a pure part
of the abyss,
I wheeled with the stars,
my heart broke loose on the wind.

(From: 'Memorial de Isla Negra')

If you missed this assignment on the first day of class: Grades of 85% will be given for written-only responses. Grades of 100% will be given for presenting orally, in front of the class.

You must write in complete sentences. Do not just write down the word/phrase and then write a statement beginning with Because. Those aren't sentences and won't be accepted.