Introduction to Poetry

Introduction to Poetry

Billy Collins

Adeeb Almasri

Objectives

Identify theme

Identify figures of speech (metaphor)

Poll

Do you enjoy reading poetry?

• Yes

• No

• Sometimes

• I enjoy reading Arabic Poetry

Open Ended

What makes understanding poetry hard?

Multiple Select

Tick the correct information about metaphors in poetry

• Metaphors compare two or more things

• Metaphors use the words "as" or "like"

• Metaphors don't use the words "as" or "like"

• Metaphors give human qualities to non-living things

• There is only one metaphor in each poem

Metaphors and Similes

•Similes, which use like or as to compare two unlike things.                 For example: The frozen lake is like glass. 

•Metaphors, which make comparisons without the words like or as.    For example: All the world is a stage.  

• Extended Metaphor, a single metaphor that extends for more than one line. 

"Hope is the thing with feathers

That perches in the soul,

And sings the tune - without words,

And never stops at all,..."

Open Ended

Write an example of a metaphor.

"Introduction to Poetry" is the title of the poem.

• What do you understand from the title?

• Why do you think the poet is asking readers to do?

Introduction To Poetry

• The title suggests that this poem is like a name of a subject that students study

• The poet is probably asking us to study poetry Maybe

Listen to the Poem by the Poet himself.

• https://youtu.be/lf69NbUlZXk

Introduction to Poetry

^{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.}

Analyze

There are 2 main parts in this poem: what the poet asks readers to do with poetry and what readers really do when they ready poetry.

Multiple Choice

I ask them to take a poem

and hold it up to the light

like a color slide

The poet is comparing the poem to a color slide, what is figure of speech?

• simile

• metaphor

Multiple Choice

or press an ear against its hive.

In this verse, the poet is using ____ to compare the poem to a bee hive

• simile

• metaphor

• personification

• imagery

Multiple Choice

I say drop a mouse into a poem

and watch him probe his way out,

What is the poet comparing the poem to in this stanza?

• cheese

• city

• mouse

• maze

Multiple Choice

or walk inside the poem’s room

and feel the walls for a light switch.

What is the poet comparing the poem to in this stanza?

• a dark room

• a n empty space

• just a poem

Multiple Choice

I want them to waterski

across the surface of a poem

waving at the author’s name on the shore.

What figure of speech is used here?

• simile

• metaphor

• imagery

• personification

Multiple Choice

I want them to waterski

across the surface of a poem

waving at the author’s name on the shore.

What is the poet comparing the poem to?

• lake/sea/river/ocean

• surfer

• author

• shore

Multiple Choice

But all they want to do

is tie the poem to a chair with rope

and torture a confession out of it.

What is the poet comparing the poem to in this stanza?

• an animal

• a chair

• a prion

• person

Multiple Choice

But all they want to do

is tie the poem to a chair with rope

and torture a confession out of it.

Who might "they" be?

• animals

• readers / students/ teachers /...

• other poets

Multiple Choice

But all they want to do

is tie the poem to a chair with rope

and torture a confession out of it.

What figure of speech is used in this stanza?

• personification

• simile

• metaphor

• imagery

Open Ended

They begin beating it with a hose

to find out what it really means.

What do these scholars and teachers want to do to the poem?

Multiple Choice

They begin beating it with a hose

to find out what it really means.

The two underlined words begin with the sound /b/. This is an example of

• hyperbole

• assonance

• alliteration

• rhythm

Open Ended

List all of the ( 6 ) things that the poet compares the poem to.

Multiple Choice

What is the theme of the poem?

• Analyzing poetry is what each learner should do.

• Don't read poetry because it is a torture

• Readers should enjoy poetry instead of overanalyzing it.

Multiple Choice

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.

This is an example of

• metaphor

• extended metaphor

• simile

• extended simile

Multiple Choice

We know that the poet is asserting his idea by using

• words like "I ask, I want, I say, But"

• imagery

• metaphors

Multiple Choice

The irony in the comparison comes from the fact that the poet compares the poem to physical things that are felt by senses. However, he wants readers to enjoy reading poetry instead of studying it like anything else.

• True

• False

Theme

Introduction to Poetry is a poem that is more than the sum of its metaphorical parts. Billy Collins wrote it in the hope that it would encourage readers and students to look, listen and react to a poem in subtle imaginative ways, rather than ride roughshod over it.

Introduction to Poetry is the poet's way of saying that a poem is a thing of wonder and should be treated in a way that does not cause internal bruising to both poem and reader.

Poll

Did you understand the poem?

• Yes

• No

• 50-50