Introduction to Poetry

“Introduction to Poetry” was written by the American poet Billy Collins and originally published in what Collins deems his first true collection of poetry, The Apple that Astonished Paris (1988). “Introduction to Poetry” is rife with sensory images that the speaker uses to encourage students and readers alike to analyze poetry in playful and imaginative ways, cautioning against being overly critical of any piece of writing. Collins believes that poems should be pleasurable upon the first reading, and insists that the deeper, analytical work must always come second to the joy of encountering poetic language.

Collins began his career as a poet at 40 years old. This late start did not stop him from gaining immense popularity among both the literati and general public. Collins writes about subjects that are familiar, taking inspiration from the Beat generation of poets (Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, Diane Di Prima, etc.), describing the suburban, the middle class, and the day to day of human experience in plain language, making his work accessible to a wide readership. Collins’s humor makes his work playful, but also acts as a way into the serious. American author John Updike describes Collins’s poems as “limpid, gently startling, more serious than they seem, they describe all the worlds that are and were and some others besides” (Plimpton, George. Interview with Billy Collins. “Billy Collins, The Art of Poetry No. 83.” The Paris Review, Issue 159, Fall 2001.) It is that mix of the playful and profound that makes Collins’s poems stand out within the modern poetic canon.

Poet Biography

Billy Collins (born William James Collins in New York, 1941) is an American poet whose observational poetry is praised for being both accessible in its simple language and deeply profound in its messages. Collins earned a Bachelor of Arts in English from the College of the Holy Cross (1963) and went on to receive his Master of Arts and PhD in Romantic Poetry from the University of California, Riverside (1971). Collins began his teaching career at Lehman College in the Bronx (1968), and he is a Distinguished Professor of English in the Master of Fine Arts program at Stony Brook University, Southampton (2021).

Bruce Weber, journalist for the New York Times, famously describes Collins’s rise to fame in the 1999 article “On Literary Bridge, Poet Hits a Roadblock.” Weber writes that, “with his books selling briskly and his readings packing them in, Mr. Collins is the most popular poet in America” (Weber, Bruce. “On Literary Bridge, Poet Hits a Roadblock.” New York Times, 19 Dec. 1999, accessed on 18 Aug 2021.) Fame in the world of contemporary poetry includes six-figure book deals, fights between publishing giants, and sold-out readings for Billy Collins. However, despite the fact that Collins published several books of poetry throughout the 1980s, it wasn’t until his fourth collection, Questions about Angels (1991), that Collins garnered the title of “most popular poet” (Weber).

It is Collins’s conversational, quirky, and humorous tone that connects readers to his poetry. There is a certain relatability within Collins’s work that comes from his refusal to gatekeep the genre. Poetry has historically been viewed as “highbrow” by the general public; however, Collins’s use of simple language to depict simple scenes of ordinary life allows readers easy access into the world of poetry. He is adept at writing about the mundanities of life in a way that is tender and engaging, leading readers to profound conclusions about themselves through the lens of his own experiences. Collins believes that the cadence of good humor is the same as that of good poetry, and his technical skill relays this within the structure of his poems.

Collins served as Poet Laureate of the United States from 2001 to 2003, and as Poet Laureate of his home state, New York, from 2004 to 2006. On the first anniversary of the September 11th attacks, Collins was asked to write a poem commemorating the fall of the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center. Collins performed his poem, “The Names,” in front of Congress in 2002, and his voice was one of comfort and familiarity for American citizens in a time of trauma and great devastation.

Collins’s poetry is playful yet philosophical. He has published a total of 19 collections of poetry, along with various stand-alone pieces in journals like The New Yorker. Collins offers writing advice with trademark levity and humor, both in the classroom and in his current publications.

Poem Text

Collins, Billy. “Introduction to Poetry.” 1988. Poetry Foundation.

Summary

The title, “Introduction to Poetry,” resembles a class name that might be found in a course catalogue, and primes readers for this 16-line poem in which the speaker teaches students how to approach writing and analyze poetry. The poem’s speaker is a professor, asking students (“them”) to explore poetry as something imaginative and without fixed meaning (Line 1). However, despite the speaker’s best efforts, the students remain adamant that poetry must always be formulaic, “tortur[ing] a confession” out of every poem in order to reach a singular conclusion (Line 14).