Collins Poem example essay topic

Billy Collins Billy Collins was born on March 22, 1941 in New York, NY and is married to Diane Collins. He is the son of Katherine M. Collins and William S. Collins. Collins received a Bachelors Degree at the College of the Holy Cross in 1963 and also received a Ph. D. in romantic poetry in 1971. He has been a writer-in-residence at Sarah Lawrence College and also was a Literary Lion of the New York Public Library. He is an English Professor at Lehman College for CUNY, where he has been teaching for over 30 years. In June of 2001, Collins was appointed United States Poet Laureate (2001-2003).

In January of 2004, he was named New York State Poet Laureate 2004-2006. Collins has been able to put together high critical acclaim with such broad popular appeal which is something no poet has done since Robert Frost. His last three collections of poems broke sales records for poetry. His audiences include people of all ages and backgrounds. Collins published eight collections of poetry. He also edited two anthologies of contemporary poetry: Poetry 180: A Turning Back to Poetry and 180 More: Extraordinary Poems for Every Day.

His work has also appeared in such periodicals as The New Yorker, The Paris Review, The Atlantic Monthly, and The American Scholar. Critical Essay on! SSThe Afterlife!" by Chris Semansky Chris Semansky claims that Billy Collins seri o-comic book Questions about Angels, addresses religious questions without being religious. Semansky evaluates Collins! | poem!

SSThe Afterlife!" and emphasizes that Collins draws a relationship between imagination and belief. Semansky claims that! SS imagination is at the root of belief. !" Semansky calls Collins a relativist which is a philosophical position which asserts that the belief of each individual is relative to his or her own belief. Semansky believes that Collins description of the afterlife, and the images of the journeys of the dead, draw a relationship between an individual's imagination rather than a religious standpoint. Semansky sums it up by saying that Collins is not trying to send a religious message to his readers but rather he is trying to inform his readers to find the meaning of life's experiences rather than waiting for the rewards of the afterlife.

Chris Semansky, ! SS Critical Essay on The Afterlife!" , in Poetry for Students, Vol 18, Gale, 2003. Collins, Billy by Tod Marshall Tod Marshall describes Billy Collins as both philosophical and comical. He also claims that Collins is not only intellectual but accessible. Marshall claims that Collins's accessibility is quite unexpected by a poet who is distinguished by academic critics. Marshall identifies that Collins! | pattern in his poems are to starts with an encounter of the imaginary world and then reflects to a literary figure either philosophic or religious.

Marshals examination of Collins! | collection from Questions about Angels, to Picnic, Lightning all lack exploration of different motifs. He claims that Collins is not like other contemporary poets because he employs both satire and humor in his poetry. Collins! | manipulation of intimacy and humor are used to benefit his performance as a poet. Collins often uses his performance to promote his work. Marshall believes that if Collins finds a way to detach from his praised style he will develop his abilities in different directions. Tod Marshall, !

SS Collins, Billy!" in Contemporary Poets, 7th Ed., edited by Thomas Riggs, St. James Press, 2001, pp 186-187. Reprinted in Poetry for Students, Vol 18. Overview of Collin's Works"X Poker face, Limited Edition, Kenmore, 1977". X Video Poems, Applezaba (Long Beach, CA), 1980". X The Apple That Astonished Paris, University of Arkansas Press (Fayetteville, AR), 1988". X Questions about Angels, Morrow (New York, NY), 1991, University of Pittsburgh Press (Pittsburgh, PA) 1999".

X The Art of Drowning, University of Pittsburgh Press (Pittsburgh, PA) 1995". X Picnic, Lightning, University of Pittsburgh Press (Pittsburgh, PA) 1998". X Taking Off Emily Dickinson's Clothes, Picador (London, England), 2000". X The Eye of the Poet: Six Views of the Art and Craft of Poetry, edited by David Citi no, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 2001". X Sailing Alone around the Room: New and Selected Poems, Random House (New York, NY), 2001".

X Nine Horses: Poems, Random House (New York, NY), 2002.! SSThe Afterlife!" by Billy Collins From Questions about Angels While you are preparing for sleep, brushing your teeth, or riffling through a magazine in bed, the dead of the day are setting out on their journey. They " re moving off in all imaginable directions, each according to his own private belief, and this is the secret that silent Lazarus would not reveal: that everyone is right, as it turns out. you go to the place you always thought you would go, The place you kept lit in an alcove in your head. Some are being shot into a funnel of flashing colors into a zone of light, white as a January sun. Others are standing naked before a forbidding judge who sits with a golden ladder on one side, a coal chute on the other. Some have already joined the celestial choir and are singing as if they have been doing this forever, while the less inventive find themselves stuck in a big air conditioned room full of food and chorus girls.

Some are approaching the apartment of the female God, a woman in her forties with short wiry hair and glasses hanging from her neck by a string. With one eye she regards the dead through a hole in her door. There are those who are squeezing into the bodies of animals -- eagles and leopards -- and one trying on the skin of a monkey like a tight suit, ready to begin another life in a more simple key, while others float off into some benign vagueness, little units of energy heading for the ultimate elsewhere. There are even a few classicists being led to an underworld by a mythological creature with a beard and hooves. He will bring them to the mouth of the furious cave guarded over by Edith Hamilton and her three-headed dog. The rest just lie on their backs in their coffins wishing they could return so they could learn Italian or see the pyramids, or play some golf in a light rain.

They wish they could wake in the morning like you and stand at a window examining the winter trees, every branch traced with the ghost writing of snow. Forgetfulness The name of the author is the first to go followed obediently by the title, the plot, the heartbreaking conclusion, the entire novel which suddenly becomes one you have never read, never even heard of, as if, one by one, the memories you used to harbor decided to retire to the southern hemisphere of the brain, to a little fishing village where there are no phones. Long ago you kissed the nine Muses goodbye and watched the quadratic equation pack its bag, and even now as you memorize the order of the planets, something else is slipping away, a state flower perhaps, the address of an uncle, the capital of Paraguay. Whatever it is you are struggling to remember it is not poised on the tip of your tongue, not even lurking in some obscure corner of your spleen. It has floated away down a dark mythological river whose name begins with an L as far as you can recall, well on your own way to oblivion where you will join those who have even forgotten how to swim and how to ride a bicycle. No wonder you rise in the middle of the night to look up the date of a famous battle in a book on war.

No wonder the moon in the window seems to have drifted out of a love poem that you used to know by heart. -- Billy Collins Questions: 1. What do you think his mood was while writing this poem? Do you think he is taking this loss well? 2.

Does this poem relate to us? 3. What is this! SS dark mythological river!" Collins is talking about? 4. Is this poem something you would be reading or remembering in the future?

Why or why not?