F07-250-Group1

="Introduction to Poetry" by Billy Collins lines 1-3 ("I ask them to take a poem / and hold it up to the light / like a color slide")=

Group 1: Ryan, Deb, Thomas, Erin, Michaela
Facilitator: //Michaela Wilsmann// Polisher: //Erin Meyer//

__Expert move #1: identifying the figurative language__
There are two types of figurative language used in the first stanza. Imagery is used when Collins tells the reader to "hold it up to the light / like a color slide" (2-3). We can imagine looking at a colorful slide as we hold it up to a light. The image is that of a beautiful rainbow of words which can be seen more vividly with light. A poem can manifest into a kaleidoscope of colors, if you move it, it will change with each turn. This will produce different colors and layers, which one can connect to the many interpretations of the reader. The second type of figurative language is simile. “I ask them to take a poem and hold it up to the light like a color slide.” This stanza is a simile because it is making a comparison between reading poetry and looking at a color slide using the word like.

__Expert move #2: exploring denotations__
As Collins writes of a "color slide" (3), the reader might picture this as a small, dark image of something that is barely discernible to the naked eye until projected on a screen, or carefully and closely examined while holding it up to a light. The light can be radiating from a simple incandescent light bulb, a candle, a lantern, a campfire or a flashlight. A light can simply be sunlight or moonlight. He left the reader to decide where the "light" would be originating from. Collins could have chosen to write about examining a picture, piece of art or portrait. Instead, he chose the words "color slide" to compare with a poem. A color slide requires more intense examination and close visual contact to really see what is on the slide.

__Expert move #3: unpacking the figurative and connotative meanings__
When Collins has the speaker say "I ask them to take a poem"(1), he makes the poem an instruction on how to read a poem. In writing about comparing a poem to a color slide, Collins is explaining how we are to look at every aspect of a poem through very careful and close observation. He chooses "color slide" because most of what is actually in the slide is hidden to the naked eye until held up to light. He asks them to "hold it up to the light" (2). He doesn't tell them to put it in a projector or place it in a stand. He wants them to "hold" it. By holding it with their own hands, it gives them ownership or a more human aspect to the poem. Maybe this gives it a personal feel, as he compares it to a poem. He wants them to examine the poem with their own bare hands, not through artificial measures. Hold a poem "up to the light" is like the reader finding his or her way through the ambiguousness of words and seeing more than a transparent image. The close reader is analyzing with a more critical scope, and can often be surprised by what is hidden beneath.

__Expert move #4: recontextualizing within the whole poem__
Examining the full color of a poem expresses Collins desire for his students to become explorers of literature/poetry. Some key verbs from the subsequent stanzas refer to probing, feeling, and enjoying. Collins closes his poem with the dissatisfaction of watching his students torture and beat the beauty they have been given. The poem in its entirety stimulates the senses. "Pressing an ear against its hive" (4) and "feeling the walls for a light switch" (8) cater to sound and touch, but also prove to be very effective when gathered collectively with the poem's way of delivering a message in the text. It seems the intention of the speaker is to encourage his students to use all of their senses so that they can fully engage a poem. The speaker describes in each stanza how he doesn't want the readers to take the easy way out and just read what's on the surface. He wants the readers to probe deep and uncover the true meaning of what is actually in the color slide.