Billy Collins, "Introduction to Poetry"

In this Poem, Billy Collins is trying to inform the readers that they try too hard to analyze a literary work. He wants them to understand the meaning to the poem itself. Most students probe and dissect poems, but Billy wishes for the students to just enjoy what is on the paper. Reading in line 5 the metaphor, "I say drop a mouse into a poem" then in line 6, "and watch him probe his way out" means that people should be be like a mouse in a maze. Go by what's on the surface.