Introduction to Poetry – Basic Understanding Questions

1. Who is the speaker in the poem?

2. Holding the poem “up to the light”, the speaker means:

3. “Hold it up to the light/ like a color slide”. What is the literary device the poet used here?

4. What do all the metaphors used in the poem have in common?

5. What is ironic about the title of the poem?

6. Comparing poetry-reading to a beehive, the poet suggests that:

7. The imagery of a mouse ‘probing his way out of a poem’, means that:

8. By “feel the walls for a light switch”, the poet means that:

9. What two metaphors emphasize the importance of structure in the poem?

10. What does Collins imply by comparing poetry reading to water skiing?

11. According to Collins, why is it important that we “wave at the author’s name on the shore”?

12. How do the last two stanzas differ from the rest of the poem?

13. In the first line of the penultimate (the one-before-the-last) stanza, who are “they”?

14. What literary device is used to create the shift in the penultimate stanza?

15. What’s an enjambment?

16. According to the speaker, how do his students approach poetry?

17. What statement is NOT true about the setting of the poem?

18. By “tie the poem to a chair with rope/ and torture a confession out of it”, the speaker means that:

19. What is NOT true about the setting of the poem?

20. What phrase would best relate to the theme of the poem?