Poetry Analysis

“Introduction to Poetry” by Billy Collins the theme that there is most focuses on is the experience getting out of reading a poem. When reading a poem readers tend to just read the poem and then come to a direct conclusion and assume that they understand the meaning, and not looking at it in a different way. This is not what Billy Collins wants “them” referring to his students to do. In the first stanzas it shows how “I” who is referred to himself wants “them” to experience the poem.

The tone the author has changes throughout the poem. By looking at the first two words in the beginning of the first three stanzas, there is a clear change in tone. The change in tone shows that his temper is rising as the poem progresses. He starts off by “I ask them” which is polite, then in the next stanzas “I say” which is more direct and in the third stanzas “I want them to” which indicates that his mood and tone has changed. The way Billy Collins chooses to describe the experience with particular images.

In the first stanza, “poem” is compared to “a color slide” that creates a strong imagery that readers have to squint their eyes to look at the slide clearly. In the second stanza, “poem” is compared to “a hive”, it might be difficult to fully understand a poem, but one can succeed even though it seems difficult. In the third and fourth stanza, Billy Collins compares “poem” to “a maze” and “a room in a house”, that indicates that the reader must feel lost and frustration. Yet, the last two stanzas show a harsh and different contrast to the previous stanzas.

The tone and imagery has a negative kind of manner towards poetry, as he describes the way his students read and rush to a conclusion. The author describes “poem” as “a prisoner”, being tied to a chair and tortured with a hose. It adds a mocking, yet humorous tone to the whole poem, mocking at the incorrect attitudes of students towards poetry, hoping to alert the readers at the same time. The poet’s choice of words gives dramatic imagery for the readers, In hope of changing the reading and interpretations of the poem. Reading Poetry” and “Introduction to Poetry” are bough similar in the way that they are describing poetry and the way they relate to how people do and should interpret poetry. “Reading Poetry” has more focus on how people see poetry for and against point of view. It tells the reader a lot about the history of poetry and the way poets write poems. The structure in “Reading Poetry” is very organized in the sense that the author starts off by writing about the ancient Greeks and Romans and works its way all the way down to how different people interpret a poem.

The two texts are very different when it comes to the contexts and lay out, but the author’s bought state the same opinion. They way to understand a poem is what they discuss the most, it is also a very important key element when reading a poem. Poets use their poems to express emotions and experiences; they then pass them on to the reader to give the reader a feeling of the author way of seeing things. Text 2 “Reading Poetry” goes into detail with trying to define poetry. This is a question that cannot be answered but is a personal opinion, just like art. Poems are a work of art, some like it others don’t. It’s a matter of taste.

Society often saddles women with limiting and unrealistic expectations concerning beauty. This results in a sense of physical inadequacy and a low self-image for those women who do not uphold those features identified as aesthetically attractive. As the poem entitled “Barbie Doll,” by Marge Piercy shows through its word choice and tone, the results can often be devastating. There is a pointed and troubling contrast in the 2nd stanza, which describes a female subject of markedly admirable qualities.

Indeed, it is almost implied that these qualities are somehow male in their nature. Her health, intelligence and strength are praised, as are her sex drive and physical abilities. We might therefore deduce that the subject being describes is an inherently attractive figure with qualities suitable for affection and mating. And yet, the resolution of this stanza is the juxtaposition which tells of a woman who is apologetic for those features divergent from female idealization.

And were it simply a low self-esteem at the root of this apologetic nature, it might be deduced that the subject is also Piercy’s object of criticism. However, the 3rd stanza makes quite clear that the woman is at the mercy of that which is expected of her by others. Society’s pressures, implied by the sarcastic tone in the first stanza concerning female targeted toys which influence early the ideal role and identity of the woman, are reinforced in a more damning fashion by the 3rd stanza, which notes that ‘she was advised’ to craft herself according to how others expected her to be.

Those unique and admirable qualities amounted to nothing as she was impressed upon to be thinner and more concurrent with the ideal of beauty. As Piercy tells, first she surrenders those qualities of her persona which made her appreciable and, consequently, she surrenders her life. She becomes the ‘Barbie Doll’ which invokes the standard image of beauty in our culture, as attractive, plastic and inanimate as a child’s play thing.

I chose the poem Going Blind by Rainer Maria Wilke. Essentially, the poem outlines an observer’s thoughts about a girl at a party who is blind. My initial feeling during the first few lines was pity for the blind girl, as the poem talks about her hesitant smile and how she holds her cup differently than everyone else because she can’t see them. She tries to follow along, laughs when cued, is left behind as partygoers start to wander. But then the feeling changes during the last line and another feeling emerges, one of sparked curiosity and a slight shift of perspective.

Leading up to that, the observer viewed the girl almost as weak and incapable, left of out the evenings events. She pitied the vacant stare and the slow movements. But then observer catches a glimpse of something else, a glimmer of deeper existence behind the milky eyes. The focus shifts to less of a judgement towards this unknown girl towards herself and a place of self-awareness. She realizes that everything may not be as her first glance may have suggested.

Going Blind is written in a loose rhyme scheme that contributes to the relatable yet mysterious tone of the poem. The punctuation is not dissimilar to prose, but the sixteen lines in quatrain form are cut off to create the rhyme, which is a, b, b, a. I feel this poem appealed more to the sight, as the description given painted, for me, a clear picture of the room full of people, the way she sat with her tea, how the guests ambled from room to room, the way her eyes looked.

As far as metaphorical phrases go, the blind girl’s eyes were compared to a lit pond, and her demeanor was compared to a nervous performer’s. The theme of Going Blind, from my perspective, is the complexity and the area of unknown within each blank face we see. We can think we have someone figured out, when in reality, there is more than meets the eye, and specifically, there is more to the character of this poem than her disability.