Destination: Stanza 8.0

Workshop by Billy Collins



A while ago, we had the opportunity to go on a journey through poetry. Seems weird huh! But it was actually quite enjoyable and personally it helped animate what on many days are just simple words that fill the lines.

Here is a link to the poem: http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/176048

1.       After reading the title, where do you think we are going? What sort of trip do you think this will be? Does it sound fun?

 

Workshop. Thinking of this I imagine so many workshops we could be going to. Is it a business workshop with stuffy people in suits or perhaps an artist’s workshop full of ingenious lunatics? Is it a workshop where I’ll be so engrossed in building my state-of-the-art sculpture or will I most likely fall asleep by the fourteenth ‘inspirational’ (note the sarcasm) speaker? One thing I know, I’ll be doing some work – I don’t know if that sounds fun.

 

2.       After reading the first stanza, where do we seem to be going? What sights do we see?  

 

This is an Ancient Mariner.

Hey I was right! “I’m in a workshop now”, but I still don’t know what kind! And for some reason there is an “ancient mariner grabbing me by the sleeve”. Last time I googled what an ancient mariner was, it wasn’t that pretty. Am not sure if it’s the same one mentioned in Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s poem ‘The Rime of the Ancient Mariner’, but if it is, this workshop must be a very old and quite spooky place.

 

 

3.       Where will we go next?

 

I can now totally relate

Remember how Gulliver (Gulliver’s Travel) felt when he became small and had to walk around large forests of trimmed grass? That’s how I feel! We are going through a poem, through the “first couple of stanzas” and up to the “last stanza” which is “my favorite”. But then again when I hear “the voice which sounds…very casual”, it’s almost as if I am listening to an English Professor (the really experienced type) deeply analyze a poem. Perhaps the voice belongs to a tour guide giving us a historical lecture of this poem.

 

 

4.       Do we need special clothes? What kind? Are they comfortable?

 

Very sad moment.
 I hope we aren't gate crashing

Tourist clothes! Definitely! You know those comfortable pants that are long but still not long enough to sweep the floors? Originally, I thought shorts would be much more appropriate, but after discovering that we would be going through “an obbligato of snow”, I wouldn’t recommend wearing shorts. Before I forget, at some point we do seem to visit a "kind of indoor cemetery...something about death...going on" so maybe we should carry some funeral appropriate clothes - a black dress will do.

 

5.       Whom do we meet along the way or who goes with us?

 

From the first stanza to the third one, it’s quite a lonely journey as we do not meet anyone. But then towards the end of the third stanza a “drawbridge operator just appears out of the blue” and then when we go to the “big aerodrome” we make friends with a “speaker…inspecting a row of dirigibles” who takes “us into his garden”.

 

6.       Do we meet animals? What are they doing? Are we happy or afraid?

There is this one mouse that we meet a lot. It started with hearing “the voice of the mouse” who was “describing where he lives”. He’s quite friendly and chatty – quite a contrast to the “drawbridge operator” who wouldn’t say a word and was just “jigging…his fishing pole” (though “I like jigging).

 

 

7.     What places do we go to? Are they fun places? What things do we do or see on our journey?

 

The Aerodrome

If there was one word to describe this journey, it would be amazingly adventurous! I mean where else would you hear someone say they can “almost taste the tail of the snake in its own mouth, if you know what I mean?” (no I don’t know what you mean!)  But as if that’s not enough, the next corner I come across has “pipe smoke blowing in my face”. At this point I give up on hygiene and conclude that after an “evening” roaming the “decaffeinated streets…I’m lost.” I did contemplate getting help, but before I got the Popo on speed dial, I am suddenly in a “big aerodrome”! If this is “a dream” then it’s a pretty awesome one I must say. The inspector guy is quite friendly – he took us over “into his garden”.

 

 

8.      Where have we arrived at the end?

 

It’s very relaxed now and the place gives me a “very strong feeling”. We’ve met this welcoming mouse who seems a lot of pride in his humble abode. “I love the details he uses when he’s describing where he lives”. “I’m not sure where we’re supposed to be” but I quite like it here, you know what I mean? (See what I did there).

The End.



 

 Thanks for joining on this journey

Hope M