Billy Collins "Introduction to Poetry"

"But all they want to do is tie the poem to a chair with rope and torture a confession out of it."  This line caught my attention, is the author saying that we should not interrogate the poem and make lines all over it and make outside connections to this poem? I think the author is trying to convey to us that yes its frustrating as a teacher when the student looks to in depth to the poem and tries to create a meaning by not analyzing but overanalyzing the poem.  The author is trying to say that his students cant just look at the poem the way it is and read it to enjoy it, they always try to find the meaning of the poem rather than figuratively using our 5 senses to feel and understand the poem. Ultimately the author wants them to have fun and enjoy the poem and to look at clearly what is on the page and not try to be to clever by finding double meanings and hidden meanings. That is the first thing that we all try to do, is to find out the meaning of the poem.  So we try and try and try too hard to figure it out by overanalyzing the poem, this is what the author is attacking, the way his students approach poetry.  I find this concept to be true in my life as sometimes i overanalyze tasks and questions or i try to find the answer when there is no answer to the question.