INTRODUCTION TO POETRY

Pre-Reading Activity : 1) a. 1- I cant deal with poetry 2- I feel that poetry is difficult 3- I dislike poetry Vocabulary Practice : 1) light switch 2) confession 3) hose , torture 4) surface 5) probe Questions : 1) Billy Collins , The speaker 2) His students 3) 1- Hold the poem up to the light like a color slide 2- press an ear against its hive 3- drop a mouse into a poem and watch him probe his way out 4- walk inside the poems room and feel the walls for a light switch 4) Beating it with a hose to find out what it really means

Analysis and Interpretation : 1) This passage is primarily a simile because it compares holding a poem up to the light like one would hold a color slide up to the light to see whats inside the tube This is a simile because it compares the two ideas using the word like . Hold it up to the light , like a color slide is suggesting that we look into the poem to try and sense the deeper meaning . 2) This passage is also an image as it states hold it up to the light . The word light is the image because when the audience is reading the word light they get a visual picture of what the word light is . Not only does light work as an image , but it is also a symbol . Light also symbolizes supreme knowledge , biblically it represents God who is all knowing .
3)

The metaphor in this stanza is an imagination to tell us and to make us understand that the poem is like a darken room in the beginning we just see in it the dark , but we should search about that little switch in it that would give us the meaning of all the poem , like when we feel that switch in the room we will find the light , and we should feel the switch in the poem that help us found that light that will make all the change and let us discover that meaning .

He meant that all the students dont know how to deal with the poem they just try to take the meaning with beating ,they dont take the meaning with understanding it , they just want to know it without any try to feel it . Its just like taking what they want and what they need without understand that meaning .
4)

5) I , They 6) From line 1-11. 7) That the students attack the poem by tying the poem to a chair with a rope and torture confession out of it without trying to figure it out . They just feel angry and begin to analyze when they dont get the meaning immediately . 8) I agree with the poet because we dont have to attack the poem while we have another way to treat it . 9) The image of the light appears twice : 1- When the speaker says : and hold it up to the light to see it clearly. 2- When he says : or walk inside the poems room and feel the walls for a light switch because when we find the light switch we can see the poem clearly too . 10) Collins used this image twice too focus on using the sense .

11)

I say drop and watch him probe

Bridging Text and Context : 1) a- Because Collins thought that this poetry will be the best changing for the students thinking , and it will change their mind & they will easily deal with the next poems Collins tried to make the students love the poems & what they are reading through this poem just like they are treating something in the real life not treating a serious poem with difficult meanings And he thought that the poem will help the students understand the meanings of the words , through this similes in the poem . b- Yes, I agree with his choice because I think that the poem will change the students thinking & treating with the poems and it will make the other poems more interesting & more exciting for the students and to show another meanings for the students just to make them understand this method of comparison . 2) This information relate to the meaning of the poem , Collins was trying to make the students love the poem and to deal with it , because when they read the poem they just treat it with beating to know the meanings , that just why he said that the poetry should be an important part of our daily lives . Collins tried to make us know that this is a part of our lives and we should treat it in any way, if we are satisfied or not .

We should deal with it because it would make us find & reveal new ideas & information in this life He chose 180 poems , one for each day of the school year just to train the students and make them know that this is an important part of life If we cant deal with this just because its difficult , we cant deal with another situations in life thats just why should we do what Collins tried to tell us in this poem Post-Reading Activity : Dear Billy Collins, When I read the poem Introduction To Poetry I just realized that Im wrong when I treat the poem like what you said , I mean treating it with beating I just want to thank you about this poem because its helpful and I think that it will change the students thinking about the other poems . It will make them love the poems and take the meaning of it without treating it with beating . You changed my thinking and I will be more comfortable when I read a new poems because now I know that its easier to treat a poem with understanding its meaning not just with taking a meaning I really want to thank you so much about writing this poem , I think it will be more accessible for me and I will consider it just like a part of my life , and I will treat it like any another part its just easy You wrote this poem to change the students thinking about poems , and its like changing a life that was bad & you make it more beautiful .

I just knew how to deal with poems through this amazing poem . Warde Simaan Reflection : 1) now I feel more comfortable about poetry , and I will treat it easily like anything in life . I just want to understand it first then take the meaning. I will see & explain the next poems like a comparison to the real life .
2)

Yes, it changed the way I will study other poems , I will take the poem easily and treat it like the other poems . I would make the poem like an image of life and deal with it like a real image .

3) This skill help us understand the poem easily because when the poet made a comparison , he just tried to make us understand the poem like any event in life . It means that this skill may make our minds think about the things and understand them like understanding an event in life , not like a serious & difficult poem .