1) The Speaker or Person in“Introduction to Poetry”
Speaker or person in the poem “Introduction to Poetry” by Billy Collins means the person who speaks the words of this poem. He is the narrator and the main character of the poem. He is, actually, a mouthpiece of the poet. This could be single person or two persons. He could have a name or an anonymous person. For example, in the poem, “I” or the poet himself is the speaker who is speaking to the readers in the first-person mode.
2 ) Figurative language in “Introduction to Poetry”
It is a type of languages in which the poet or the writer uses different figures of speech to make his language impactful, persuasive and beautiful. For example, in the poem “Introduction to Poetry,” Billy Collins has used simile as poem like a color slide, and indirect metaphor of burrow of the mouse or a living human being having a room.
3 ) Closed Form vs. Open Form in “Introduction to Poetry”
A closed form poem means a poem which has proper structure and other poetic elements such as structure, meter, rhyme scheme and regular lines, while an open form poem does not have a definite structure. The poem, “Introduction to Poetry” by Billy Collins is an open form poem which does not have proper structure. It only comprises of conversation and something metrical rhythm, but it does not follow any structure.
4 ) Personification in “Introduction to Poetry”
It is a figure of speech in which an inanimate objective is attributed with human qualities such as in this poem, the poem has been made to be a human being having her own room “walk inside the poem’s room” or “torture” a poem.
5 ) Connotation in “Introduction to Poetry”
Connotation is a common idea, quality or a perception that culture or society associate with a word. For example, “torture” always means to beat, but here in “Introduction to Poetry,” it means to beat a prisoner as it has specific meanings attached to it due to the chair and rope which are used to tie a captive or a prisoner.
6 ) Assonance in “Introduction to Poetry”
Assonance is a literary device in which two or more closely occurring words have the same vowel sounds though they start with different consonant sounds. In “Introduction to Poetry,” “really means” have the same vowel sounds.
7 ) Paradox in “Introduction to Poetry”
Paradox in poetry means the occurrence of the opposite or contradictory ideas close together to have complete and comprehensive meanings such as in “Introduction to Poetry,” there does not seem any paradox. However, there is an example that you must be cruel to be kind in which cruel and kind are two contradictory ideas put together.
8) Metaphor in “Introduction to Poetry”
A metaphor is a figure of speech which declares something as something else such as “Introduction to Poetry” shows surface of the poem as if poem is a sea or a waterbody. This is a metaphor of sea or waterbody used for a poem. This is an indirect metaphor.
9) Allusion in “Introduction to Poetry”
Allusion is a short reference to something historical, social or literary in a piece of literature. For example, a line of “Introduction to Poetry” alludes to John Keats who has a tombstone inscribed with a phrase “Here lies one whose name was writ in water” and this is the line “waving at the author’s name on the shore.” Although the author may not have intended it, is somewhat clear.
10) Conceit in “Introduction to Poetry”
A conceit is a fanciful idea of making two highly different things similar though the use of metaphor or simile, such as in “Introduction to Poetry,” Billy Collins has declared the poem as a bee, or a room or a pit and an ocean or a water body. All these are conceits in the form of metaphors or similes.
Work Cited: “Introduction to Poetry” by Billy Collins
Collins, Billy. “Introduction to poetry.” The apple that astonished Paris (1988): 58.
