Write a rhyming poem full of fun and nonsensical images to make a small child laugh.

Imagine that you are a poem being analysed by teachers and students. Write a poem describing what it feels like to be cut open in such a manner. 

Think of a situation that holds meaning for you and write down any images that the thought generates in your mind. Now write two verses using the same images to describe that situation. 

Write a short poem from a reader to a poet describing the difficulties that s/he may have experienced while attempting to understand a poem.

Read the poem given below and answer the questions that follow:

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.

i) What are the various things that the poet compares a poem to?

ii) What image of a poem is evoked in the last few lines? What is this literary device called?

iii) Who is ‘they’ in the poem that the poet refers to? What does he actually want ‘them’ to do?

iv) Which lines in the poem tells you that a poem can be complicated and needs to be navigated carefully? Do you think it is appropriate? Give 2 alternative comparisons to indicate the same thing.