Poetry Essay Essay

In the poems ‘How to Eat a Poem’ by Eve Merriam and ‘Introduction to Poetry’ by Billy Collins, important ideas are presented about how poetry should be experienced and enjoyed. The poets used the techniques extended metaphor, repetition, metaphors and personification to show me how these ideas is important. In ‘How to Eat a Poem’ by Eve Merriam, the author describes how poetry is to be experienced. Poetry doesn’t need any manners and has no rules. â€Å"Don’t be polite / Bite in.† is an example of just jumping in to poetry because it’s got no manners and it’s for everyone. â€Å"It is ready and ripe now, whenever you are.† Shows us that poetry is for everyone. Poetry never goes away because it always written on paper. It’s not hard you don’t have to be clever to enjoy poetry because it’s always there to be read. Poetry is to be experienced and enjoyed by anyone. In the poem ‘How to Eat a Poem’, the techniques of Extended metaphor and repetition are used to show me the important idea. Extended metaphor us used in the lines â€Å" Pick it up with your fingers and lick the juice that. / May rush down your chin. / It is ready and ripe now, whenever you are.† To compare juicy fruit to poetry. Through doing this, the poet helps me understand that poetry is about experiencing poetry, and not holding back but in fact diving in. It also helps me understand that you can be messy and enjoy your poem. Repetition is used in the lines â€Å"or stem / or rind / or pit / or seed or skin.† To compare poetry to the inside of a fruit. Doing this has helped me understand that poems aren’t hard, that they are fun and don’t have the bad bit of a fruit. That it’s really tasty and anyone can do it. These two techniques help compare juicy fruit to poems. In the poem ‘Introduction to Poetry’ the poet shows me the important idea that poetry is about having fun. Poems are made to have fun for everybody not just cleverest people. It’s for people who like having fun. â€Å"I want them to waterski / across the surface of a poem / waiving at the authors name on the shore.† The author is also trying to tell you to not over  analyze things. In the poem it states that all we want to do is torture it and get a confession out of it. Poems are to be about having fun, not trying to find every possible meaning and to just skim across getting the ideas that the poet wants us too. Poems are about having fun and not over analyzing them. In the poem ‘Introduction to Poetry’, the techniques metaphor and personification are used to show me the important idea. Metaphor is used in the lines â€Å"I want them to waterski / across the surface of a poem / waving at the authors name on the surface.† Which compares waterskiing and having fun to a poem that is fun and relaxing. This helps me understand that poetry is fun and relaxing just like waterskiing. When you imagine yourself waterskiing you imagine a sunny day, speeding along bouncing up and down on waves while waving to your friends on the shore in the sand. Poems are the same you can enjoy yourself through rhyming or using alliteration. All the techniques that make a poem fun and enjoyable to write and read. Personification is used in the lines â€Å" But all they want to do / is tie the poem to a chair with a rope / and torture a confession out of it† to compare tying up a person to a chair and trying to get a confession out of it. Over analyzing a poem and taking meanings that aren’t meant to be instead of taking the idea that the poet tries to convey. Doing this the poet helps me understand that poetry is to be about the images or the meanings that the poet is telling you. That poetry doesn’t need to be â€Å" tied to a chair and tortured†, so it gives a confession that it doesn’t have to be an expert that needs to analyze it, anyone can do it. Poetry is intended to be enjoyed, anyone can do it, it doesn’t need to be over analyzed. Both of these poems have helped me understand more about poetry and what it’s about. That poetry is about having fun and to be experienced by everyone. Anyone and everyone can enjoy poems, they don’t have to be the cleverest or the smartest to understand poetry. I think these two poems represent what poems are about.