Introduction to Poetry

I definitely recognize this poem from first semester. This poem starts out with a 3 line stanza and then a single and then a double, but these stanzas pop up in different variations, so there is no stanza structure. There also seems to be no clear rhyme scheme in this poem. I think Billy Collins mainly used this structure for the use of conveyance and comprehension of the reader. The way the stanzas are broken up make the poem easier to read and break apart into pieces, in my opinion, so the reader doesn't try to beat Collins' poem with a hose. The main argument used by Collins here seems mainly to be to highlight the fact that poetry is for enjoyment of the audience and the poet, very similar to a sport like football, soccer, or maybe even waterskiing. At times these sports can be taken a little too seriously by the people in and surrounding it, which strangles the fun out of it--like in a poem when one tries to take it much too seriously to the point where a hemorrhage is being conceived. When the activity is taken for the pleasure that it is worth to the user, then the activity is serving its true purpose, just as is applicable in the world of poetry. As choppy as that whole explanation was, the point of the matter is to take things for what they're worth and what makes them the most enjoyable; don't force anything. I liked this poem because it did convey this strong message by using such simplicity within metaphors that we find more easily transitional into everyday life.