Recently, I found a program that was compiled by Billy Collins published on the Library of Congress Web site. The plan is to have a Poem a Day for High School Students. https://www.loc.gov/poetry/180/
I posted the first poem on the wall in an alternative classroom with Billy Collins’ intended audience of high school students. In my own recent experience, there were several group activities to get to know the students and teachers on 9/6/17. The group shared what was interesting to each person. I stated that poetry interesting. After this, I posted the first poem “Introduction to Poetry” on the wall in my classroom. My observation is that there was no response from the students. I could interpret this as unresponsiveness to poetry or disinterest.
https://www.loc.gov/poetry/180/001.html
I like the three dimensional point of view of this poem. It makes me think of the latest technological advancements of adding facets to an object so that the observer can see it through a cell phone viewer as virtual reality. It could have significance in terms of the most recent STEM projects where art and science are combined. It also resembles some of the impulsiveness and perspective shifts of poets to try to understand the world.
Collins examines “Introduction to Poetry” as a scientific object. “Hold it up to the light” is reminiscent of science experiments like chromatography where “true colors” are examined. The “color slide” suggests scientific activity using a microscope where the light is shown beneath the specimen and enlarged 10x. In all of these activities, the notes are recorded for later analytical reports including hypothesis, summary, methods, and observations just as ELA modules require evidence based discussions and writing based upon the text.
The second stanza conjures imagery of scientific studies with mice, “I say drop a mouse into a poem and watch him probe his way out.” Younger students may relate this part of the poem to the song, “Three Blind Mice.” The poem is enlarged again to “room size,” where the actor in the poem needs to “feel the walls for a light switch” to illuminate and “see” the contours and dimensions of the space. The reader may feel a transformation in this quick perspective change from small to large. The point of view shift allows the writer to impart drama and shapeshifting. How can a mouse “feel the walls for a light swith”? Can the specimen have human goals and traits?
The imagery of “people” and “life” continue into the middle of the poem, “Introduction to Poetry.” There is definitely a shift to experience the poetry as a sportsman or as a live audience watching the skier balance on two 86mm fiberglass skis on a wavy platform. “I want them to waterski across the surface of a poem waving at the author’s name on the shore.” If the student becomes the water skier, then the author is the audience. This strongly reveals Collins’ poetics of “experiencing” the poetry at more than one level.
In the classroom or in a critical space, the analytical process of placing poetry in front of the reader is sometimes painful and tortuous. “But all they want to do is tie the poem to a chair with rope and torture a confession out of it.” For a teacher and a poet, this could set forth a relationship between students and peers during a feedback process of a poem in the spotlight. A thoughtful and beautiful poem can become ugly and beaten after targeted inspection.
These are the complexities of the examination and drama of a poem. Deus ex machina can be applied as a literary device that illuminates the analysis required when reviewing and writing about a poem. In a drama, a divine character may be introduced miraculously and leave as quickly to provide a solution. In poetry, the illustration and context represents the magic of words to be visual and allow for quick perspective shifts and resolutions. A poem that shifts from a scientific experiment to a fun sport of sunshine and water, and back to a “tortured” figure is disheartening to someone who loves poetry, but it may be the impulsive and horrific scene that can capture a teen’s interest. This is the significance of a poem to stand alone or to be a part of a larger web of life.
Billy Collins answers a question about poetry no one ever sees. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=QuS36q9wrVU
“I am thinking ahead. I want to make it a good poem…you can begin by expressing yourself but if you mature as a poet you no longer think ‘I am expressing myself’ what you are doing is you are making it for a reader. You are making it…”
Work in Progress 