Essay on Understanding Poetry: Billy Collins, Introduction to Poetry

“Life is fine!” is not what one typically announces if their life really is fine (Hughes l.27). Often, people hide behind masks of being “fine” to hide their true issues, such as depression and despair. The poem “Life is Fine” by Langston Hughes as well as “On Turning Ten” by Billy Collins tackles the topic of depression. While both poems focus on this theme of depression, they greatly differ in their perspectives and outlooks for the future, one with a suicidal adult as narrator, the other a ten year old child.

The imagery used in this verse appeals to the sense sight. This helps the reader visualise what the writer is taking about. It also allows the reader to relate and connect more to the poem.

Throughout the poem, a number of literary devices are used. For example: “or press an ear against its hive”. Using this metaphor, Billy Collins is comparing the body of a poem to the hive of a bee. The hive of a bee appears to be something dangerous and unknown, just like a new poem, never before seen, with which one is unfamiliar. Using this metaphor, Billy Collins is

To elaborate, the reader can not truly hear what is taking place in the poem, but does get a sense of being able to hear what they are reading. For instance when the speaker says “While his gills were breathing in” (22), the reader can almost hear the fish breathing. The speaker again stimulates the auditory senses when she says “and a fine black thread, / still crimped from the strain and snap” (58-59). Again the reader can virtually hear the sound of the line snapping. The next aspect of imagery that needs to be examined is the sensory imagery. An excellent example of sensory imagery is found when reading the lines “It was more like the tipping, / of an object toward light” (43-44). These lines can give an almost unbalanced feeling to the reader as they conceptualize these words. Imagery is not the only important element used in this poem. As stated earlier, irony is an important component involved in “The Fish”.

The structure of the poem is free, and what it does is to give us the spirit of the sea. The poem is written in free verse, there is no restrictions of formal rhyme or meter. However, the length of the three stanzas of the poem is very even although it is not exact. It makes the flow of the entire poem became balanced. This form of structure is just like the wave of the sea. The period of the wave is natural and balanced; it is pretty even but it is not exact. Also, there are a lot of commas in the poem. Keeping using commas makes the sentences very long. In fact, the entire poem is constructed by 6 sentences only. It makes the feeling of the poem just like the sea, and lines of the poem are the wave of the sea. Each endings of the waves are

Initially, Collins demonstrates how one can weigh a dog’s weight with his method. Concrete diction in the first stanza, such as, “ small bathroom”, “ balancing”, and “shaky” suggest the uncomfortable nature of his intimate relationship with his pet. Although Collin is unappreciated for the gritty toil determination, he praise himself to applauded that “this is the way” and raising his self-esteem by comparing how easier it is than to train his dog obesity. In addition, the negative diction used to describe Collin holding his dog to be “awkward” for him and “bewildering” for his pet. This establish he rather force love rather willing show patience. When holding a pet on scale, there is less hustle because he secures the dog’s position by carrying it. Where as when he orders the dog to stay on the weighing scale with a cookie, his dog only followed him because of the expected reward.

Two, there are multiple lines in the song where imagery plays a big part. Visual, or any other form of imagery, is when you make the reader feel, see, touch, hear, or taste something,

From controversial events to ordinary life stories, Billy Collins writes about various topics in different perspectives just like a chameleon, changing its colors to fit with its surrounding. Collins talks in a gentle, yet humorous way; he illustrates a profound understanding through a clear observation. His writing style blends humor and solemnity in one entity. Throughout his poetry, Collins demonstrates, in a witty and satirical voice, his insightfulness towards the objects, using numerous poetic devices, especially allusions and metaphors to effectively convey his messages, most of which revolves around the theme of death.

Often at times there are many voices in one poem. These voices represent the different views that come from the same material that are portrayed by the buzz that the bee elicit in the hive. The proposal that Collins is trying to exude is that there is never one way to read a poem. The type of approach will vary with reader and who they are, but by having a radical approach it will help to enhance our understanding of what the poem means. Collins wants the reader to feel free when analyzing a poem: “I want them to waterski across the surface of the poem waving at the author’s name on the shore.” As a teacher you try to pummel depth into your students’ minds and push them into the direction of understanding. The speaker declares that the grapple to illuminating meaning and the amount of time where the reader does not understand adds to the worth of the poem. The parallel to the surface of water, where you have not attained the depth even though you know it’s there is important to how much it takes to find the true meaning of a poem. While reading this poem it have the outlook on how poetry places more of aln emphasis on us to be able to pick apart the undisclosed meaning and essentially to be able to pull apart the poem without a fixed structure. By doing it this way it is able to help the audience to build upon skills to help interpret and understand, which substantially is important throughout any source of literature. We

This poem opens with an extreme and vivid simile, “The bright wire rolls like a porpoise” (line 1). This beginning not only grasps the attention of the audience, but the image intensifying language that Kooser has chosen

Next, the speaker talks about the fish’s eyes, larger, shallower, and yellower than hers. The different pieces of fishing line caught in his jaw shows how many times he either escaped or was let go by the other fishers. Then the description of the rented boat, the parts of the boat that all turned into a rainbow.

The beginning of this poem is about how much the speaker likes loud music. For example the speaker says “the speakers throbbing” which means the music from the speaker has a strong rhythm. This is an Aural imagery. “Jam-packing the room with sound whether Bach or rock and roll” means to crowd to capacity the room with sound. Another phrase is “the volume cranked up so each bass notes is like a hand smacking the gut which means you feel the beat in your guts. Again this is a aural image. This section obvious tells us how much the speak feels about loud music.

Reinforce and emphasize the verbal meaning in a poem, Cummings and Simmons (1983) claimed that the visual element can be used as a means to lead one to wonder if there would be a poem at all without it. In this poem, the change of paragraphing since line 58 might encourages readers to enjoy the visual rhythms produced, as it can be implied the confusion of the dog. Alternatively, changing of paragraphing is believed to intensify the social and political beliefs embed in the

Even though the poem has an easily recognizable shape, it deciphers only the outlines through the visual perception where one’s overall perception of the piece is

The effect this conveys is similar to the preceding stanza: the reader again puts themselves into the place of the narrator, deepening the connection Ashbery has made. The next line creates tension, as the hot-air balloon filled with suicidal dreams is on the verge of bursting with something invisible - but only during the days. This unreality is lovely and frightening all at once. We sense the instability and menace herein. Then the poet says that "We (which is deliberately vague; "We" could be the human race, or just poets, or people experiencing situations like this - it is unclear) hear and sometimes learn, / pressing close to" . . . and the line is left in this state of tension, resolving to the final couplet: "And fetch the blood down, and things like that. / Museums then became generous, they live in our breath." These lines simply cannot be excavated for meaning, there is none available to us. This is in accordance with Ashbery's wishes; his design is for this oblique and abstract poetry to connect on a level deeper than the tactile or sensual, and to delve into our subconscious, our souls. Ashbery is speaking in the language of dream, of fantasy, and by using breathtaking language permeated with peculiar and startling metaphors, he achieves an expert outcome and a marvelous poem.