Read the excerpt from "Introduction to Poetry" by Billy Collins.They begin beating it with a hoseto find out what it really means.How does the figurative language in this excerpt reveal Collins’s message?

The image of readers beating a poem with a hose exaggerates the forceful way they try to make it reveal a definite meaning. Collins is criticizing this approach: rather than experiencing a poem and exploring its possibilities, some readers pressure it for an explanation. The excerpt is not saying that poems themselves are violent.

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