"introduction to poetry"
by billy collins
i ask them to take a poem
and hold it up to the light
like a color slide
or press an ear against its hive.
i say drop a mouse into a poem
and watch him probe his way out,
or walk inside the poem's room
and feel the walls for a light switch.
i want them to waterski
across the surface of a poem
waving at the author's name on the shore.
but all they want to do
is tie the poem to a chair with rope
and torture a confession out of it.
they begin beating it with a hose
to find out what it really means.
source: collins, billy. "introduction to poetry." poets. org. academy of american poets, n. d. web. 4 apr. 2011.
which type of literary theory would examine the relationship between the poem and billy collins?
mimetic
expressive
rhetorical
formal