S07_250_Grp6

=Collins Group 6=

__Expert Move #1: Identify and describe the figurative language.__
Throughout Billy Collins' poem "Introduction to Poetry," the speaker uses plentiful amounts of figurative language to create vivid imagery of a poem being "tortured" by amateur poetry readers. The students do not know how to read, understand, or interpret a piece of writing. As Dr. Chick states in her notes, "Imagery is a specific detail in a work of literature that appeals to the senses (sight, sound, touch, taste, smell). Images help us "see" or imagine something in the literature beyond just a thought or idea." Collins uses figurative language to create an image of his students torturing a poem by "beating it with a hose / to find out what it really means” (15-16). Students are obviously not physically taking a hose and beating the papers in front of them, so imagery is used to describe how the students treat interpretation. Collins chose to use this verb as a way to “show” the reader the way his students are attempting to read and understand the poem. The verb "beating" gives readers a visual image, revealing that these students are so frustrated that they will torture this poem like it has tortured them to interpret it.

By using the specific image of an interrogation by torture, Collins is able to describe how students look for a very specific explanation of the poem's meaning that may not be there. He also intends for us to understand that by using this approach to reading poetry, the reader will never fully understand the true meaning of a poem; like a person being tortured for a confession, a person torturing a poem for its meaning will keep reading it until they hear what they want. Although these students could beat a poem with a hose due to their frustrations, most readers know that a concrete answer to its meaning is not going to magically appear simply because the poem cannot handle being beaten any longer! The speaker wants his students to use critical thinking to experience the true beauty behind what authors want to say in their poetry. Continuing to beat poems as they have will only hurt the author's attempts to leave an impression on readers and could turn the reader away from a beautiful poem. It is much more vital to have an individual meaning that is significant to each reader, since poetry's ability to have a personal affect on people is its most valuable trait as a part of literature.

__Expert Move #2: Explain the comparison and its denotative meaning.__
By telling us that the students reading the piece of poetry are “beating it with a hose,” Collins is creating some very graphic, vivid imagery for his readers (15). What we literally "see" in this portion of the poem is a group of students beating a poem with a hose. The act of being beaten to force a confession out of something gives most of us an uncomfortable picture, which is why Collins chose that image specifically to help prove his point. When something is beaten with a hose, we can feel the pain of the lashes immediately and the lasting soreness left behind. We can even hear and shudder at the sound of the crack of the hose against the skin. Long after the beating is over, we will be able to touch the bruises and see the coloration of the welts. Denotatively, a hose beating always means pain and lasting impressions, and since a beating is usually given as a punishment or an act of aggression, readers understand its emotional side effects. Collins could have used a less severe word such as "hitting" or even "crumpling up" the poem to throw it away, but "beating" someone or something has a much harsher impact since it is by definition more extreme and forceful. By combining the beating with his previous description of students trying to "torture a confession out of it," Collins shows the harshness of what the students are doing. Collins creates a situation in which readers can imagine hearing a poem screaming out confessions, with the students repeatedly beating it until they hear a “confession” that suits their own ideas. To get a “confession” out of an unwilling subject usually means resorting to drastic measures, which is the case in this poem. He wants us to see how truly angry these students have become and understand why they have resorted to violence as a way to find the true meaning behind a poem.

__Expert Move #3: Explore the specific language and its connotative meaning.__
By creating the image of a tortured confession and a beating, Collins is trying to associate the way some students read poetry with the cruel and inhumane acts of torture and punishment. When the slaves in our country were beaten before emancipation, their masters were attempting to show control and superiority without acknowledging the emotions of the slaves. When beating a disobedient child with a belt or whip, the punisher gets the result that he or she wants without understanding what caused the behavior. Finally, a bully who needs a place to channel their frustration and aggression will choose to use an innocent child as a scapegoat, resorting to violence to make themselves feel better. Collins is therefore implying that by reading poetry in this fashion, his students are doing it a great injustice and being inhumane towards it, attempting to control the poems instead of letting the poems have an effect on them. They are trying to force the poem to give up its meaning, so they will not have to work so hard to figure it out themselves. The result is torture, forever leaving an impact on the relationship between the students and the poems.

Collins may be connotatively saying something about the tools that his students are using to interpret poetry with his choice to use a hose as the object that the poems are being beaten by. When thinking about beating, the first tool of choice that comes to mind is not a hose, but rather a stick, whip or belt. Instead of a hose, Collins could have chosen an instrument used in more severe beatings, like a flogging whip or kittles, but that would imply an intentional cruelty from his students. His students are not necessarily bad people, they just need to understand that there are many meanings to any particular poem and they need to be more open to multiple possibilities. Since a hose is not usually associated with a beating, a tool like a stick may be more significant for inflicting harm. This leads the reader to wonder why Collins used the word "hose". Choosing a hose could bring in an association with water because water can make things grow, just like different interpretations can grow into something special after analyzing a poem numerous times. This could be why Collins used the word "begin" in the last stanza. His students could finally be beginning to learn how to "unpack" the connotative meaning by examining more of of the sub-text, with the help of the growth caused by the water from the hose. It could also be possible that Collins chose a hose because it is unorthodox, showing that the students are not using the right tools in their interpretation attempts. In addition to taking an entirely wrong approach towards reading and interpreting poetry, the students are also using the wrong skills to interpret it, possibly because they do not possess the correct skills to do interpretation properly. Instead, they are trying to make do with what they have. The students could get help from their teacher to learn how to properly interpret or possibly learn from other students, but they choose not to, instead succombing to the violence inspired by their frustrations. They feel that a poem is lifeless information and fail to appreciate the talent and beauty behind poetry. They do not understand that the goal of interpretation is not to "solve" a poem, but to "unpack" it. Along with unpacking, the students need to realize that there are many interpretations behind poetry, not just one. Collins knows the poems have multiple meanings, he is just frustrated that his students do not also realize this potential.

__Expert Move #4: Connect the figurative language to the rest of the work of literature.__
Throughout this poem, Collins uses different devices of figurative language to show both what he asks of his students (to unpack the poetry) and what they instead try to do (force the meaning out of the poem). Along with the figurative language used in each stanza, the theme is what really connects the piece together. The beating hose image specifically connects with Collins’ theme that students are not reading poetry the way it was intended to be read. The title of the poem, "Introduction to Literature," shows the frustration which readers of poetry may have while being introduced to a poem, but Collins describes the way he would like his students to go about analyzing poetry despite these frustrations. This is evident when he says “I ask them to take a poem / and hold it up to the light / like a color slide” (1-3), because you cannot truly see a color slide without holding it up to a light. Collins is saying that he wants his students to study a poem just as someone studying a picture or a note would study it; not only by reading it on the surface, but also by looking through the poem with a light to understand what lies beneath it. To truly interpret a poem, you have to view it from different points of view. But when first being introduced to interpreting a poem, readers often feel that there is a specific meaning to a poem and "beating" it out will find this meaning.

Beating is just one example of the "torture" that Collins' students have used thus far (14). Even before "beating the poem with a hose" (15), they "tie[d] the poem to a chair with rope / and torture[d] a confession out of it" (13-14). The students resorted to this because they did not take the time to properly and efficiently "unpack" the poem. As opposed to these harsh methods of interpretation, Collins wants his students to explore and enjoy deciphering the poem's meanings. Rather than beating a poem, he would like to see his students "press an ear against its hive" (4). His students could also play a more observational role, as in //watching// "[a mouse] probe his way out of a maze" (6) instead of actively pushing a mouse through a specific path, or "feel[ing] the walls for a light switch" (8) instead of being angry that the room was not already lit. Beating the poem just forces it into a small box of what it should be, rather than "waterskiing across the surface" (9-10) to see what its potential is. Collins also suggests that he wants his students to appreciate the talents of the author when he states that he wants to see them "waving at the author's name on the shore" (9-11). His theme is his desire for his students to enjoy poetry and not to frustrate themselves to the point where they have to beat it with a hose. The metaphors and images he uses throughout the poem, like the beating hose, create graphic and vivid imagery for his readers, helping them understand this theme. With the encouragement to not need concrete answers, he gives his readers a feeling of acceptance to discover their own interpretations and feelings, letting the poetry work its magic on each individual person.

__3-Sentence Summary__
Collins is using his poem to communicate a message to his readers- a message that any piece of poetry has many possible meanings and his students are incorrectly reading a poem in search of one specific meaning, risking the loss of a plethora of possible interpretations by individual readers. He uses figurative language, such as the image created in lines 15-16, to help show the error in his students' expectations of the poems revealing themselves, since his students are paying more attention to the text and the denotative meaning of "what is said" as opposed to focusing on "what is meant" by the connotative meaning of the subtext. The students need to realize that they have an opportunity to patiently open up the package, take out the different pieces, and explore the contents "to find out what it really means" (16), as we have done with Collins' poem to be true to his message.