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? a. It criticizes the way some readers try to understand a poem. b. It criticizes the violent themes found in modern poetry. c. It suggests that the study of poetry requires physical strength. d. It suggests that every poem has a simple meaning.

a. It criticizes the way some readers try to understand a poem

Explanation:

Billy Collins makes a great reference to how some readers try to understand a poem, by saying that they begin beating it with a hose, trying to explain that they take everything too rough and do not consider all the factors, nor try with the care and importance that analyzing a poem should have, he writes in his poem the ways to understand a poem, speaks about

"I want them to waterski

across the surface of a poem

waving at the author's name on the shore."

Speaking about a way of getting to know the poem and investigate, about feeling it and letting it take you places, but all what readers want to do is easily and quickly understand it.

the answer is it criticizes the way some readers try to understand a poem