The celebrated American poet Billy Collins published "Introduction to Poetry" in his 1988 collection The Apple That Astonished Paris. In Collins's characteristically casual and witty style, the speaker talks about different ways of teaching poetry, trying to show students that poetry can actually be enjoyable. Using one metaphor after another, the speaker frames the act of reading poetry as an exploration and an adventure, suggesting that reading can be as exuberant as waterskiing or lively as a beehive. Instead of embracing this lighthearted approach, though, the speaker's students get hung up on figuring out what a poem means, beating it senseless as they try to extract its secrets.

• Read the full text of “Introduction to Poetry”

• “Introduction to Poetry” Summary

• “Introduction to Poetry” Themes

  • 

    The Joy and Wonder of Poetry

    Where this theme appears in the poem:

    • Lines 1-16

• Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “Introduction to Poetry”

  • Lines 1-3

    I ask them ...
    ... a color slide

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 4-8

    or press an ...
    ... a light switch.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 9-11

    I want them ...
    ... on the shore.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 12-14

    But all they ...
    ... out of it.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 15-16

    They begin beating ...
    ... it really means.

    

    

    

    

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• “Introduction to Poetry” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language

  • Metaphor

    

    

    

    

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    Where metaphor appears in the poem:

    • Line 4
    • Lines 5-6
    • Lines 7-8
    • Lines 9-11
    • Lines 13-14
    • Lines 15-16

  • Simile

    

    

    

    

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    Where simile appears in the poem:

    • Lines 1-3: “I ask them to take a poem / and hold it up to the light / like a color slide”

  • Personification

    

    

    

    

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    Where personification appears in the poem:

    • Lines 12-16: “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.”

  • Juxtaposition

    

    

    

    

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    Where juxtaposition appears in the poem:

    • Lines 1-16

  • Consonance

    

    

    

    

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    Where consonance appears in the poem:

    • Line 1: “ask,” “them,” “to,” “take,” “poem”
    • Line 2: “hold,” “up,” “light”
    • Line 3: “like,” “color,” “slide”
    • Line 4: “press,” “ear,” “against,” “its”
    • Line 5: “say,” “drop,” “mouse,” “poem”
    • Line 6: “watch,” “probe,” “way”
    • Line 7: “walk,” “poem's,” “room”
    • Line 8: “feel,” “walls,” “light,” “switch”
    • Line 9: “want,” “waterski”
    • Line 10: “across,” “surface”
    • Line 11: “author's,” “shore”
    • Line 13: “poem,” “chair,” “rope”
    • Line 14: “torture”
    • Line 15: “begin beating”
    • Line 16: “find,” “means”

  • Assonance

    

    

    

    

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    Where assonance appears in the poem:

    • Line 2: “light”
    • Line 3: “like,” “slide”
    • Line 4: “hive”
    • Line 5: “poem”
    • Line 6: “probe”
    • Line 11: “waving,” “name”
    • Line 13: “poem,” “rope”
    • Line 16: “really means”

  • Sibilance

    

    

    

    

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    Where sibilance appears in the poem:

    • Line 4: “press,” “against,” “its”
    • Line 5: “say,” “mouse”
    • Line 9: “waterski”
    • Line 10: “across,” “surface”

  • Alliteration

    

    

    

    

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    Where alliteration appears in the poem:

    • Line 1: “to take”
    • Lines 2-3: “light / like”
    • Line 6: “watch,” “way”
    • Line 9: “want,” “waterski”
    • Line 15: “begin beating”

• “Introduction to Poetry” Vocabulary

  Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.

  • Color Slide
  • Hive
  • Probe
  • (Location in poem: Lines 2-3: “hold it up to the light / like a color slide”)

• Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “Introduction to Poetry”

  • Form

  • Meter

  • Rhyme Scheme

• “Introduction to Poetry” Speaker

• “Introduction to Poetry” Setting

• Literary and Historical Context of “Introduction to Poetry”

• More “Introduction to Poetry” Resources

  • External Resources

    • A Reading of the Poem — Hear Billy Collins read "Introduction to Poetry."

    • The Poet's Life — To learn more about Billy Collins, take a look at this brief overview of his life and work.

    • An Interview with Collins — Read the Paris Review's interview with Billy Collins, part of the magazine's "Art of Poetry" series.

    • Collins's Sonnet — Read another poem about poetry by Collins—which argues for a more grounded, playful approach to writing poems as well as reading them!

  • LitCharts on Other Poems by Billy Collins

    • Afternoon with Irish Cows

    • On Turning Ten

    • The Art of Drowning

    • The History Teacher

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