Introduction to Poetry

“Introduction to Poetry” belongs to a long literary history of writings about the act of writing itself. Collins is specifically concerned with the act of writing and analyzing poetry, and like so many that came before him, strives to make poetry and poetry education accessible to the masses through his works.

Collins’s poetry exists alongside the likes of Robert Frost and Allen Ginsberg, all creating poetry that is simple, conversational, and at the same time, deeply introspective. The repeated figurative comparisons Collins draws between poetry and the sensory world align “Introduction to Poetry” most closely with the Beat Poets: A generation of poets that rebelled against traditional American writing standards in the 1940s and 50s. The main concern of the Beat Poets was that of authenticity, with central figure Allen Ginsberg making the argument that anything can be art, and that it is oftentimes a writer’s first thought that is the best one; it is the thought most worth investigating. Collins applies this philosophy to writing, and encourages the readers of “Introduction to Poetry” to let their first encounter with a poem shape the rest of their experience with it.