Slide 1

Slide 2 Introduction to Poetry By: Billy Collins Slide 3 I ask them to take a poem and hold it up to the light like a color slide Slide 4 or press an ear against its hive. Slide 5 I say drop a mouse into a poem and watch him probe his way out, Slide 6 or walk inside the poems room and feel the walls for a light switch. Slide 7 I want them to waterski across the surface of the poem waving at the authors name on the shore. Slide 8 But all they want to do is tie the poem to a chair with a rope and torture a confession out of it. Slide 9 They begin beating it with a hose to find out what it really means. Slide 10