In “Marginalia” and “Introduction to Poetry,” Billy Collins uses comparative imagery and aggressive diction to illustrate a reader’s need to protect themselves from enjoying literature they cannot understand through annotations. In both poems, Collins uses comparative imagery to create a visual representation of readers’ inability to comprehend the essence of literature. In “Marginalia,” Collins compares the readers and their annotations to “fans who cheer from the empty bleachers” (Lines 23-24), illustrating the fans are cheering because they are in the bleachers, not because there is anything to cheer for. Likewise, the “fans who cheer” represent the readers and their enthusiastic annotations towards what they are reading however, “the …show more content…
Early in the poem “Marginalia,” Collins explores the emotions of readers and annotators and claims “the notes are ferocious, [including] skirmishes against the author raging along the borders of every page” (Lines 1-3). By describing the annotations as “ferocious” and “raging,” it is more easily conveyed that the annotations are predatory towards the author in defense of one’s own frustration in seeking a nonexistent underlying message. Similarly, in “Introduction to Poetry,” Collins is faced with the challenge of persuading readers, “but all they want to do is tie the poem to a chair with rope and torture a confession out of it.” (Lines 12-14). By choosing the word “torture,” Collins is enforcing that the annotations are aggressive and readers retain that anger and violence which is forcing literature to give up a meaning that it is not willing to give up or supposed to give up. The word choice clearly portrays the emotions being felt by readers and how they use their annotations to support the need for an extensive interpretation of the reading. The fear of reading literature and not being able to comprehend the ideas presented forces readers to create a deeper meaning through annotations, as expressed through Billy Collins’ use of comparative imagery and aggressive diction in “Marginalia” and “Introduction to Poetry.” Collins’ choice to
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Updike, John. “A&P.” Literature Craft and Voice. Ed. Nicholas Delbanco and Alan Cheuse. 2nd ed. New York: McGraw, 2013. 141-145. Print.
Heberle, Mark. "Contemporary Literary Criticism." O'Brien, Tim. The Things They Carried. Vol. 74. New York, 2001. 312.
An English professor of many years at the University of Michigan-Flint, Thomas C. Foster has delivered an impressive book: How to Read Literature like a Professor. This book is an invaluable tool for readers at any level that can be used to more easily identify and interpret the many symbols woven into books, short stories, poems, and other writings. In the book, Foster not only explains what common occurrences, such as rain or illness, can mean symbolically, but also gives numerous examples from the works of popular authors. While a quick glance at the title may not give the impression that the reading will be particularly enjoyable, a book cannot be judged by its cover.
Through the irony in this description of ineffective censorship by a history teacher who elects not to teach the truth of historical events, Collins illustrates that attempting to completely shield children from the violence in the world can have an opposite effect. By not learning about the brutality and human suffering that has occurred in the past, people may never gain that sense of empathy that is so vital to human existence, causing them to have few misgivings about becoming the perpetrators of violence themselves. Similarly, in “Outdistanced” Rubin uses irony to show one way that a lack of understanding about one’s own position, as well as about that of others, can have negative effects. In the poem, a younger narrator is annoyed when an old man becomes an obstacle to his quick pace. Preparing to hurry by the old man, the narrator compares himself to the sun outstripping a star that is the old man. However, when he does pass the old man, the narrator looks over at him, expressing to the reader, “He has my face” (9). The irony in this moment is that just a few lines before, the young man believed himself to be more important than
Updike, John “A&P.” Exploring Literature: Writing and Arguing About Fiction, Poetry, Drama and The Essay.4th e. Ed. Frank Madden. New York: Pearson Longman, 2009. 496-501. Print.
In Terry’s Eagleton’s book, “How to Read Literature,” Eagleton divided his book into five different chapters titled: “Openings,” “Character,” “Narrative,” “Interpretations,” and “Value.” Throughout the book, Eagleton mentioned many famous authors and many well-known books. Not only does he mentioned them, he often quoted them to give examples on how readers should analyze the words and the message of the work itself.
Meyer, Michael, ed. Thinking and Writing About Literature. Second Edition. New York: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2001.
In the history of written literature, it is difficult not to notice the authors who expand their reader's style and manner of reading. Some write in an unusual syntax which forces the reader to utilize new methods of looking at a language; others employ lengthy allusions which oblige the reader to study the same works the author drew from in order to more fully comprehend the text. Some authors use ingenious and complicated plots which warrant several readings to be understood. But few authors have used all these and still more devices to demand more of the reader. James Joyce, writer of Ulysses and Finnegans Wake, uses extraordinarily inventive and intricate plot construction, creative and often thought-provoking word constructions, allusions to works both celebrated and recondite, and complex issues and theories when challenging his readers to expand their method of reading.
reader creates “supplementary meaning” to the text by unconsciously setting up tension, also called binary opposition. Culler describes this process in his statement “The process of thematic interpretation requires us to move from facts towards values, so we can develop each thematic complex, retaining the opposition between them” (294). Though supplementary meaning created within the text can take many forms, within V...
Updike, John. “A&P” Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing. 7th ed. Eds. X. J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia. Boston: Pearson, 2013. 17-21. Print
Since “words do not mean in isolation; words mean as indispensable parts of a contextual whole that includes the emotional tone and impact, the literary antecedents,...
Bedford Introduction to Literature: Reading Thinking Writing: Ninth Edition. Boston/New York: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2011, 2008, 2005, 2002. Print. 13 April 2011.
Bressler, Charles E. Literary Criticism: An Introduction to Theory and Practice. 5th ed. New York: Longman, 2011. Print.
During the time-period when they authored this essay, the commonly held notion amongst people was that “In order to judge the poet’s performance, we must know what he intended.”, and this notion led to what is termed the ‘Intentional fallacy’. However, Wimsatt and Beardsley argue that the intention, i.e., the design or plan in the author’s mind, of the author is neither available nor desirable for judging the success of a work of literary art. It is not available because the author will most certainly not be beside the reader when he/she reads the text, and not desirable because intention as mentioned already is nothing but the author’s attitude towards his work, the way he felt while writing the text and what made him write that particular piece of writing and these factors might distract the reader from deciphering the meaning from the text. This method of reading a text without any biographical or historical background of either the poem or the poet practiced by the New Critics was known as ‘Closed Reading’. This stemmed from their belief in the autonomy of the text.