Point of View

“Introduction to Poetry” is written in the first-person point of view using the pronoun “I.” This is the very first word of the poem, establishing the narrative perspective immediately, and these “I” lines also become a repeated refrain (this use of repeated opening words is called anaphora). The majority of the poem focuses on this first-person speaker, with the narrator looking inwards at their own objectives as a teacher. It’s only towards the end of the poem that the attention shifts to characters external to the speaker, using the pronoun “they” (Line 12). This keeps the focus not on the students (despite them being the object of the speaker’s frustration), but on the speaker’s relationship with the world around them.

Language and Meaning

Like the majority of Billy Collins’ work, this poem uses straightforward, everyday language accessible to readers of any level. This...