33 pages • 1 hour read
Introduction to Poetry
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Symbols & Motifs
The Mouse
The mouse in Stanza 3 of “Introduction to Poetry” performs many symbolic functions. Collins draws upon the common associations that mice are quick learners and efficient explorers, using the mouse to exemplify how students ought to move through a poem themselves. The speaker of the poem asks students to “drop” a mouse “into” the poem, implying that this is the first time the mouse has ever encountered this new environment (Line 5). Collins’s use of the preposition “into” as opposed to “onto” is important here as it makes the poem a physical space, a maze of language to explore (Line 5).
Many scientific, behavioral tests have been run on mice by placing them inside complex labyrinths. Despite the mouse’s new surroundings, students watch as the rodent “probe[s] his way out” of the poem, symbolizing the hard work and determination it takes to fully understand and experience poetry (Line 6). The mouse not only symbolizes the resolve students need to accomplish meaningful literary analysis, but also draws attention to the physical structure of the poem itself.
Poetry comes in many different forms, carefully constructed by the author of each piece. So, by choosing to drop a mouse into the poem as opposed to any other animal, Collins exposes that the only way out of a poem is to explore every dead end, crack, and corner with the patience and precision of a mouse. Students empathize with the mouse because it is a mirror of themselves, eagerly sniffing its way through every part of the poem.
The Light Switch
The light switch is another prominent symbol in Billy Collins’s “Introduction to Poetry.” Collins references the light switch in Stanza 4, again transforming the poem into a physical space by asking readers to “walk inside the poem’s room / and feel the walls for a light switch” (Lines 7-8). Collins taps into the colloquial understanding of the “light bulb moment,” or a moment of sudden realization and inspiration, using the light switch to represent the active role students (and therefore readers) must play in illuminating the deeper meaning of a poem.
The light switch is not introduced until readers are already eight lines into the poem, demonstrating the amount of time it takes to form an insightful perspective about a work of poetry. Collins asserts that the nuances of a poem will not be understood instantaneously, by placing this symbol in the center of “Introduction to Poetry.” Collins withholds the light bulb moment from readers until they have processed the various images and symbols that came before it.
The seven lines that precede the inclusion of the light switch represent all of the connections readers need to make before coming to this moment of clarity: the sudden flash of understanding and intelligence that floods the dark room of the poem with light. The speaker asks students to constantly turn on the lights: Collins views each new stanza as a new room for students to fumble through in the dark until their eyes adjust and they are able to make out the switch on the wall. Collins asks readers to be patient with themselves and with poetry because sooner or later they will flip the switch.
The Five Senses
Writers commonly utilize the five senses as a motif in children’s literature and poetry. Beginner reading books use colorful illustrations, textured paper, and onomatopoeia, or words that imitate and evoke the sound to which they refer, to involve young readers’ senses of sight, touch, and sound. Children’s senses are the first way they learn how to explore and analyze the world, so the use of these senses as a literary tool further immerses young readers into the stories they encounter.
Billy Collins uses the motif of the five senses to remind adult readers not to lose their childlike wonder as they grow up. “Introduction to Poetry” does not use any visual illustrations, but is nonetheless full of creative and fun images that come together to describe Collins’s love of language. Collins imagines how readers can see (Stanza 1), hear (Stanza 2), and feel (Stanza 4) their way through a poem, so it is not hard to envision how the poem Collins describes may taste or even smell.
Collins is adamant that in order to fully experience a poem, readers must discard the preconceived notions they learned in adulthood about how to analyze literature, and instead posits that readers should rely on their inner child to guide them through the initial reading of a poem.
This motif can be seen anywhere from Eric Carle’s children’s book The Very Hungry Caterpillar to E.B. White’s essay “Once More to the Lake,” and of course, in Billy Collins’s “Introduction to Poetry.”
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By Billy Collins
