Understanding Poetry on a Deeper Level

In the poem "Introduction to Poetry" by Billy Collins, he pokes fun at the fact that critics don't really enjoy poems, and instead prefer to "torture a confession" out of them in order to understand their meaning.
Listening to this poem, you can hear the humor and sarcasm in his voice as he describes in vivid detail how critics hit his poems with a hose in order to understand their meaning. In a casual way, he wants to point to the fact that he simply wants his poems to be enjoyed.



When reading through, I expect this poem to talk about appreciating poetry, which it fulfills. What took me  by surprise was when it takes a turn about two thirds of the way through and criticizes the critics for being so mean to his poetry, and not enjoying it as it was meant to be written. I appreciated this surprise in the poem, and it made it more interesting and memorable.

I found that the poem was fairly straightforward, after you began to understand the imagery of some of his examples. They all relate to how a reader views his work. Do they read it for pleasure? The same way someone surfs a wave? Or do they torment themselves about what something means? And try to wrestle a confession like an interrogation?

The poem does not have characters, necessarily, although within the allusions he does try to depict certain people with his examples. There are two kinds of readers, we can surmise, those who read the poem to enjoy it, and those who read the poem to pick it apart and criticize it. The only real setting of the poem lies in the examples, like waves of the ocean or the chair of the interrogation room. The action, or "what" of this story, is the struggle between the author and critics.

As far as why it all matters, or what it all means, I see a poem that was derived from stress that the author's poem's were going unappreciated. It would seem that this author gets the most joy from writing poetry when he knows that other people enjoy reading it. Even though it can be positive to get attention from critics, this author wants to point out that poems are not written to get recognition and be picked apart by the academic community. Their true purpose is to be enjoyed by readers who simply like a good poem, and they can take whatever meaning from it as they wish or need at that time.

The poem's form is iambic, although there is no end rhyme. It sounds smooth, although the lack of end rhyme helps to snap you back to reality, making it sound more real and less sing-song. It switches ideas two thirds of the way through, and that transition really helps to make the reader understand what the topic is really about, and why the poem was written in the first place.

While this poem uses iambic patterns, it is certainly no sonnet. It departs from traditional forms of poetry by the way it calls attention to the fact that it doesn't want to be criticized. Surely this is unique, that within the poem, a message is sent to the critics, telling them to just back of a little. I really enjoy that, and I think the message it sends is loud and clear.