I ask them to take a poem


and hold it up to the light


like a color slide




or press an ear against its hive.




I say drop a mouse into a poem


and watch him probe his way out,




or walk inside the poem's room


and feel the walls for a light switch.




I want them to waterski


across the surface of a poem


waving at the author's name on the shore.




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.


—"Introduction to Poetry,"

Billy Collins


The poem's central idea is that the


Think about the central idea and the figurative language. What conclusion can you draw about the poet's message?