Comparative Essay Example: Introduction to Poetry and Ars Poetica #100: I Believe

Imagine that you are given a pen and paper and told to write a poem as fast as you can. Now picture that this poem is handed to 10 different people, who are then told to analyze it and tell you what it means. Chances are, they will come up with different interpretations, not necessarily pertaining to the intended meaning, or may even point out unintentional details. This is what authors Billy Collins and Elizabeth Alexander work to demonstrate in their poems “Introduction to Poetry” and Ars Poetica #100: I believe” when they discuss how poems are interpreted. By juxtaposing the authors’ and the audience’s relationship with the poem, Collins and Alexander shed light on the customary way in which reader’s approach poems,  but also the optimal lens through each of the authors’ perspectives. 

Both Collins and Alexander examine, within their poems, the way in which a reader typically deconstructs a text to better understand its meaning. Collins emphasizes the harm inflicted on its message when it is over analyzed by the reader. He does so by reflecting on the common misconception that writing must have one literal meaning, as he mentions how “all the reader wants to do is tie the poem to a chair with rope and torture a confession out of it” (Collins 12-14).  By personifying the poem as a person who is coerced into a confession, Collins depicts a negative image which the reader associates with the ineffectiveness of interrogating poetry. Alexander also speaks to the audience’s interpretation, further describing the way in which poetry is often thought to be formulated purely based on emotions. She discusses this phenomenon by highlighting what poetry is “not”,  describing how “Poetry (and now my voice is rising) is not all love, love, love, and I’m sorry the dog died” (Alexander 14-16). She does so by employing syntax which consists of  a parenthetical phrase, allowing the author to speak her inner thoughts, paired with repetition. The phrase is employed by the author in order to prove that the succeeding sentence ingrains through repetition, the critical concept of love not being the sole topic of discussion. Both Collins and Alexander effectively display the way in which the reader wrongly analyzes a poem, in both its meaning and its composition. 

Contrasted with the audience’s understanding of poetry, each writer also strives to establish a thorough evaluation of the optimal lens through which he/she expects their writing to be viewed. Collins begins his piece by reminding the audience that the most favorable way to look at a poem is through curiosity rather than strict conformity, similar to how an artist like Picasso might capture the essence of a person without adhering to specific characteristics.  Elucidating how the true nature of poetry is revealed primarily through thoughtful observation, he tells the reader to “take a poem and hold it up to the light like a color slide” (Collins 1-3). Through use of a simile, Collins compares a poem to a color slide, whose image is revealed only through light; a poem similarly becomes clearer when you look at it from a natural perspective. Alexander goes on to demonstrate to the audience how a poem should be viewed as a living thing, which can be found all around us. She does so by echoing the words she has written into the style of her poem, initially exclaiming how, “Poetry, I tell my students, is idiosyncratic” (Alexander 1-2).  This formal diction choice establishes an instructional tone throughout the rest of the poem, while also mimicking the word Idiosyncratic which means quirky. Alexander articulates the idea that poetry is capable of educating, while simultaneously sounding informal, therefore dispelling the conception that a poem must only be one or the other. The authors, while having varying beliefs on how a poem should be approached, work to establish how one must view a poem in its raw and natural state. 

Throughout each of their poems, both authors strive to convey the complex outlook on poetry, which is achieved as a result of understanding through differing lenses. It is essentially a contrast between two components, one being the initial way in which poetry is viewed and understood, and the second being the way in which each particular author wants poetry to be perceived and decomposed. By bridging the widening gap between the author and the audience’s individual interpretations of poetry, both Collins and Alexander transform the experience of the reader and the impact of the author.