"introduction to poetry"by billy collinsi ask them to take a poemand hold it up to the lightlike a color slide or press an ear against its hive. i say drop a mouse into a poemand watch him probe his way out, or walk inside the poem's roomand feel the walls for a light switch. i want them to waterskiacross the surface of a poemwaving at the author's name on the shore. but all they want to dois tie the poem to a chair with ropeand torture a confession out of it. they begin beating it with a hoseto find out what it really means. source: collins, billy. "introduction to poetry." poets. org. academy of american poets, n. d. web. 4 apr. 2011. which type of literary theory would examine the relationship between the poem and billy collins?

The correct answer is expressive.

According to M.H. Abrams, a famous American literary critics, all literary theories can be separated into four groups: mimetic, expressive, rhetorical, and formal.

Mimetic group deals with the relationship between the work itself, and the world surrounding it.

Expressive theories have to do with the connection between the work and the author, which is the case here, since we need to examine the relationship between the poem Introduction to Poetry and its author, Billy Collins.

Rhetorical theories deal with the relationship between the work and the audience reading it, listening to it, or watching it.

And finally, formal theories do the close reading of the work, taking everything into consideration.

in the short story the slip-over sweater by jesse stuart, the main character and narrator shan is friends with grace, an intelligent girl he has known since childhood and with whom he used to be in love.

at the beginning of the story, shan believes he’s no longer in love with grace, but loves jo-anne instead. in order to buy a slip-over sweater and have jo-anne wear it so that the other students would know she loved him too, shan takes a loan at the bank.

while jo-anne is wearing shan’s sweater, his friend grace starts to wear another popular boy’s one, roy’s sweater. because of that, the other students begin to pay attention to grace and compliment her perseverance and effort. they admire her for walking 5 miles to school every day, despite the weather, and still getting the best grades. shan, who knows all of that for a fact, says, as the narrator, ‘and i knew she had the durability and the toughness of a storm-battered mountain oak.’ he compares his friend’s strength – not only physical, but also of character – to an oak tree, whose wood is known for being sturdy.

as the story goes on, shan changes his behavior out of concern for the debt he has to pay at the bank. his new girlfriend jo-anne never asks him what is wrong nor offers any sort of . instead, she breaks up with shan for not being as fun as she thought he was supposed to be. grace, however, not only asks about shan’s problem, but him make the money he needs. shan can’t but notice how different the girls are and what a wonderful person grace is.   even though he used to find jo-anne prettier at the beginning of the story, he now says, ‘grace was as beautiful as our mountain was in april, prettier than a blossom of wild phlox or a mountain daisy.’ his comparing grace to a mountain or something that exists on a mountain (such as a mountain oak or daisy) certainly has important meaning since shan loves the mountain and everything about it and he knows the mountain thoroughly. shan also loves and knows grace as completely as he does the mountain.

i believe it is d.) previous creature