Introduction to Poetry

This poem is a lot more straight forward than most we have read. Collins starts it off in the first 5 stanzas by explaining what he thinks audiences should do with poetry. How people should just take it as it is and explore what it has to offer. He uses a lot of metaphors and similes to bring this wanted image across. Each stanza is very strong on its own and gives a new perspective added on each time. Then the last 2 stanzas display how audiences actually view poetry and how they treat it. The imagery continues through these stanzas just as well as the beginning. Collins believes we as readers try to force a meaning out of poetry instead of exploring it and in a way having fun with it.

One thing that I noticed in Collins poem was his use of capitalization. The word "I" is always capitalized like it should be but the word "they" is never capitalized even at the beginning of a stanza or sentence. In my mind, this adds to the affect of what Collins WANTS audiences to do and what THEY actually do. They in a way being a sort of enemy or lesser person.