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Directions:This assignments has two parts:
Part 1: In your first blog, write a personal response to your reading. Which three poems most appeal to you? Why? Comment on Collins's use of figurative language, imagery, diction, tone, etc. Include specific quotes and details from these poems and discuss how they were interesting or meaningful to you. Are there questions you'd like to pose to the class for consideration?
300-500 words. Due Wednesday, July 27th.
Part 2: Don't begin your second blog until after July 28th, when all students will have completed their first responses. In your second blog, you must respond to one or more blogs that your fellow classmates posted. Feel free to comment on their responses, offer your own commentary on their observations and analysis of a poem, and/or try to answer a question that was posted.
200 words. Due Wednesday, August 10th.
Desire is a very interesting beast. It does what it wants at the times when it deems it appropriate, the only master it serves is the slave executing all of its wanted actions. It'll comply with the slave for the goal he sets forth to accomplish but when she sees something that interests her, she'll nag and moan till her wishes are met. It would be easier to ignore her overall and continue on with whatever you set forth to do but her mind numbing persistence always gets the better of everyone. Even the simplest of goals seem muddled when she starts waving her painted hands and orders you to bring her something of interest to entertain her for the short moment of time when your existence is recognized. That is how I felt about this book. Billy Collins "Sailing Alone Around the Room," a fine read if your into poetry or other works similar to the genre, to me it felt more of a impassive chore blocking my way from more-interesting-subjects. No ill said but the work in general, Mr. Collins has a very descriptive way of writing his poems. and connecting his audience to the scene he's setup to play, especially for the stories that really connected to me as a reader. 'Monday Morning' really embeds itself into the reader's subconscious, the story of the student trying to survive possibly her final Monday of her Senior year. "The complacency of this student, late for the final, who chews her pen for an hour, who sits in her sunny chair, with a container of coffee and an orange, a cockatoo swinging freely in her green mind as if on some drug dissolved,
ReplyDeletemingling to give her a wholly ancient rush," her mannerism is one we're all familiar with at one point as we stand and remember the finals of the past days; hopped up on any form of caffeine or food trying to strive the hours eating away at our soul, as we try to solve a mind splitting question in the hopes of passing this one exam to propel us towards the new year. "- to silent pals and steins, dorm of nobody who would bother to pull an A or care, " a great sense of relief washes over us as we finish but eventually it sidelines and like the quote says we either find pride in the A won or forget it as life puts forth more desirable goals to feel pride in. Another work by Collins 'Snow' presents a confronting scene of warmth and tranquility, "-how the notes and the spaces accompany its easy falling on the geometry of the ground, on the flagstone path, the slanted roof, and the angles of the split-rail fence- in silence, reading the morning paper or reading Being and Nothingness, not even letting the spoon touch the inside of the cup, I have a feeling
the snow would even go perfectly with that," the dance and song the wintry wonderland puts forth, presents a never forgetful show as the soft tone of the play causes us to desire the exact show Billy describes in the poem.
Part 1- Because they wouldn't let me post my entire response in one shot.
Part 2-
ReplyDeleteThe mental image of enjoying the falling snow with a warm drink and possibly a love one is a comforting thought knowing out of the experience nothing but peace will prevail here. Finally "The Movies" allocates itself well along with the readers own personal desire to feel involved in the work he or she is enjoying, " I would like to watch a movie tonight in which a stranger rides into town or where someone embarks on a long journey - I want to watch it lying down with the bed hitched up to the television the way they'd hitch up a stagecoach to a team of horses so the movie could pull me along the crooked, dusty road of its adventures.- and the movie would continue without me. And at the end of the day I would hang up my oval hat on a hook and take the shortcut home," we're there with the action happening, many would like to be the character tackling the plot of the story but the rest would find it more preferable to watch from the sidelines and allow the story to unfold right in front of them. Carried by the power of own imagination, we present ourselves in the environment of the happing plot and watch as the character's story blossoms till it ends moving beyond our unsatisfied craving as we're brought back to our own reality to relive another story within our own setting. But it's all lost when I stare outside the glistening window and watch the sun embrace the ever green pasture of grass and the various beings that inhibit it's space. I then look down at the books you wish for us to read and I become disgusted that I have to accomplish such a mundane task, instead of enjoying the wonderland outside and embracing the true nature of true summer. Yes, the books are short and beautiful but as I force myself to read through their grind, I continually desire something else, attempting to find any excuse to avoid accomplishing this goal I desired to take since the final day of exams. And yet here I am complaining about my quarrels about mandatory summer work blaming a fine piece of literature for my nagging troubles to the soothing sound of Vapor Wave music and the privilege of my computer as it tempts me with promises of joy and never ending entertainment. But then again, finishing early and not having to rush on the final day does have its benefits, especially when compared to other disastrous years.
The poem My Number appealed to me because it questions the most obscure part of our lives- death. The inquisitive tone of the poem lightens the mood of an otherwise dark theme and the personification of Death creates a stronger connection between the reader and the theme. The personification of Death provides Death with the human characteristic of choice, meaning in this poem every death is deliberate, arranged, and certain. Collin’s questioning of Death and its methods of killing in the way of “scattering cancer cells like seeds” or “tampering with air brakes”, provide further proof of Death staging “accidental deaths”. However, the most interesting part, for me, was the end where the author creates a scenario where he would try to talk his way out of Death. It shows the way, as humans, we would try anything to avoid death.
ReplyDeleteThe second poem that interested me was Some Final Words because it is Collin’s way of imparting wisdom and guidance on the readers. The poem is simple and states its purpose with the straight forward statement that “the past is nothing”. The poem is telling the readers that the past is utterly unimportant and can only be a “wellspring of sorrow”. The author’s voice is helpful and provides guidance by constantly urging the reader to “forget the past”. Collin’s diction here is simple but diverges from the point as he goes into detail of Strauss and his history. However, I felt the message of the poem was rooted in his own personal experience with holding on to the past. That’s why it is so powerful when he listens to his own advice by letting go of the past and simply enjoying the “crisp October air” of the present.
The poem Passengers appealed to me because the author’s perspective on a simple plane ride is so different than most. He starts off by stating that he sat in his seat with “the possible company of [his] death”; right from the beginning he addresses the situation of their possible death in a calm manner as if he had already accepted their fate. Collin’s description of the passengers’ joint death as they rocket towards “a sudden grasp of brightness” seems to suggest an ascension into heaven. However, what interested me the most was the deep connections the author formed with the surrounding strangers because of their possible shared fate. He took extra time to notice things about his fellow passengers like the “woman cooling her tea” and the man with his “briefcase so carefully arranged”; it was as if he was the only one that knew of their possible death and if anything happened he wanted to remember all of their last moments alive.
The poem “My Number” was extremely thought-provoking, especially after I read Mira’s interpretation of its content. The poem’s eccentric causes of one’s death represent the spontaneity of the loss of life. As Mira indicated, Collins views “Death” as a physical being that has control over the deceased. For example, one could die in a car accident due to Death’s “tampering with the air brakes.” Death is an enigma; it is one of the few things we have absolutely no control over, which petrifies us all. I agree with Mira’s last statement involving the extent at which one would go to avoid death and how Collins portrayed that with his final line.
Delete“Passengers” was another one of my favorites because it resembled Collins’ attention to detail. Although the poem focused on the death of the passengers on a plane, it was quite uplifting, due to the fact, that Collins wanted to acknowledge the eventful lives of his fellow passengers rather than see them as strangers. As Mira indicated, Collins took much effort in recording “the way that girl cooling her tea and the flow of the comb that woman through her daughter’s hair.” I really appreciated how Mira alluded to Collins’ relationships with his fellow passengers and how he wanted to recognize their final minutes in existence.
I found Mira’s interpretation of the poem My Number to be very interesting because not only did she discuss the tone and theme of the poem, but she analyzed Collins’ use of personification when describing death. Mira pointed out that Collins is implying that every death is “deliberate, arranged, and certain”. Collins writes that it is human nature to try to escape death, but for everyone, eventually death is inevitable. Both Mira and I shared Passengers as a favorite poem. As Mira said, it’s a very interesting poem because as Collins sits at the airport waiting to board the plane, he considers his and his fellow passengers’ potential deaths. Unlike most people, Collins remains completely calm while encountering these thoughts. Collins notices every simple thing that each person is doing, and appreciates each one. I enjoyed that Mira chose to discuss these two poems together because I think they relate to one another very well. Collins’ recurring theme of approaching death in these poems leads the reader to new views on life and death. While Collins does often refer to death, he does so in order to make the reader truly appreciate their life and their time left alive on Earth.
DeleteThroughout the various poems in “Sailing Alone Around the Room,” author Billy Collins possesses a unique voice. From my perspective, I felt connected to the scenes Collins creates in his writing by the way he uses detailed descriptions, imagery, and diction. The titles Collins creates are common things that many people can relate to: insomnia, trouble writing, and forgetfulness. However, what I think makes Collins different is the way he takes these common titles and makes them intriguing and distinctive. One of Collins’ poems that I felt connected to was Forgetfulness, a poem about how all our lives we are taught an immense amount of facts, read uncountable amounts of stories, and live through many memories. However, everyday we lose bits and pieces of these facts, stories, and memories from our minds, as if they have “floated away down a dark mythological river”. According to Collins, “Long ago you kissed the names of the nine Muses good-bye and watched the quadratic equation pack its bag…”. The entire concept of this poem is relatable to everyone. In fact, isn’t the point of scholastic summer assignments is so that students keep their mind moving, so that they don’t forget the information they learned last school year and are prepared for the next? So, in a way, this assignment is actually proving Collins’s point. This is what makes this poem so intriguing to me, what makes me connected. Collins uses personification throughout the poem when he writes that, “the memories you used to harbor decided to return to the southern hemisphere of the brain”. His detailed descriptions of the common things many people forget help make this poem relatable to many. For example, the quadratic equation, the plot, title, and author of a book, state flowers, capitals of countries, the order of the planets, and even the nine Muses. Advice to Writers is a second poem by Billy Collins that appealed to me. A poem about being stuck writing, an extremely common feeling by many humans. I enjoyed how Collins was able to take a such a familiar disposition and make it unique by giving advice to get out of your writing slum. He advises to wash and scrub the walls and floors of your study to get your mind moving. He creates the image of a spotless room with a desk and a lamp, ideal for good writing when he writes, “clean the place as if the Pope were on his way”. This line appealed to me because it is so relatable. If I knew the Pope was coming to my house, every inch would be spotless. This is what Collins is advising your study should look like in order to write well. Collins also uses a metaphor when he writes, “Spotlessness is the niece of inspiration”, a line that further enhances his advice to writers.
ReplyDeleteFinally, Insomnia is another of Collins’s poems that appealed to me. Insomnia is just another common weakness, which coincides with Collins’s theme throughout Sailing Alone Around the Room, taking ordinary flaws and making them individual. Everybody knows the feeling when you simply cannot fall asleep. How “even though the house is deeply silent”, the room “is perfectly dark”, and “the body is a sack of exhaustion”, you still cannot get to sleep. Through these detailed descriptions Collins creates an image in the readers’ mind. He also creates an extended metaphor by referring to insomnia as a person, “he”, with humanlike qualities. For example, when he writes, “someone inside me will not get off his tricycle, will not stop tracing the same tight circle on the same green threadbare carpet”. I felt most connected to the poem when Collins writes that, “It makes no difference whether I lie staring at the ceiling or pace the the living-room floor”, I will not fall asleep. He [insomnia] seems to be the only thing that “exists at this hour in the nest of dark rooms”. The use of personification and the use of the third person point of view throughout this poem intrigued me most.
Julia Lewis
DeleteBry made a very insightful point when she wrote in her analysis of Insomnia that Collins’s book-wide theme was taking ordinary flaws and making them individual. This was not something I had thought of, but after reading her response it made perfect sense. In Insomnia Collins takes a normal hardship and turned it into something unique. Collins changes insomnia into a person. This use of personification coincides with his book-wide theme. Insomnia is a very relatable thing because though most people wouldn’t be considered actual insomniacs, most people do have trouble sleeping occasionally. It’s a hopeless feeling but it is perfectly described by Collins as a “he” who keeps on making frenzied rounds. Collins does a good job throughout this poem by making it relatable but giving it his own twist.
Both Bry and I blogged about the poem Advice to Writers. We each had our different takes but both arrived at the same conclusion that a clean workplace is imperative for good writing. I did take a different route though when I wrote that this “cleaning” would be used to discover new things to write about. I believe that the scouring Collins talks about is an overall different type of cleaning. I think he means it to be a cleaning out and revamping of the mind. Bry took this poem a different, yet profound, way. She once again related it to her idea of Collins’s book wide-theme. The common problem of writers block was made unique through Collins’s advised cleaning of the mind. Both Bry and my responses shared commonalties but we had different takes on what Collins meant by a “cleaning.”
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ReplyDeleteI thought all of the Billy Collins' poems in “Sailing Alone Around the Room” were captivating. Each poem was personal and unique; allowing an insight about Collins. The three poems I found the most appealing were Introduction to Poetry, First Reader, and The Flight of the Reader.
ReplyDeleteIn Introduction to Poetry, Collins uses it as a way to show how difficult understanding poetry can be. Throughout the poem he uses analogy as a way to explain a poem’s complexity. He treats a poem like a subject, analyzing and exploring everything about it. For example, when he says “Drop a mouse into a poem and watch him probe his way out” Collins is actually talking about how mazy a poem can be. A poem can go in many directions and can be interpreted differently. At the end of the poem Collins mentions how people “...begin beating it with a hose to find out what it really means” to explain that people don’t give the proper time or patience to understand a poem. That’s why I like this piece of writing because Collins teaches us that there is more to poetry than we think.
In First Reader, the most alluring thing about it is the diction. Collins uses diction to allude different novels. He uses his words to hint at stories the reader might know of. Collins lists the characters’ names or mentions something referencing a novel. Some of these novels might be first books or classics like Dick and Jane, Wuthering Heights, Great Expectations, and so on, “Jane in a blue jumper, Dick with his crayon-brown hair.” He uses this sort of diction to give a child like perspective to his reader, exploring books and language for the first time. Collins also compares the process of learning to read like a neighborhood, each novel progressing further into someone’s reading level. What I appreciate about this poem is that Collins is trying to show how someone who’s just beginning to read appreciates words and writing more than others.
In the book Collins puts the poem, The Flight of the Reader, last. I love that it was placed there since the poem’s theme focuses on the journey and nature of a reader. In this poem he compares readers to birds. As readers we act like birds. We “stay perched” on our author’s shoulders, watching over everything they write. Readers rarely leave the author once they fall in love with a piece of writing. Collins then mentions how him, like many authors, don’t want to see their readers ever go, “I hate to think of that morning when I will wake up to find you gone...” Readers are what help authors keep writing. This ‘bird’ gives the author the desire to keep moving forward. Authors can live without their readers, they just wouldn’t be authors anymore. What I liked about it was how, using metaphor, Collins is able to give an insight to his readers what his perspective of them is.
I really enjoyed reading your analysis of Collins' poems. In your analysis of "In Introduction to Poetry," I feel that you have a deep understanding of the poem itself. I found it a little funny how you mentioned that the poem acknowledges how it can be hard to understand poetry while at the same time you provided such a thought out analysis of a poem yourself. It seems as if you definitely gave the proper amount of time to understanding the poem. In the next poem you talked about, "First Reader," I totally agree with your interpretation of the poem. I also enjoyed the way that Collins used words that gave the poem a child-like feel. I thought that was really awesome because we can easily forget about younger readers when talking about literature, because we see it as a "deep, meaningful, adult" thing, but in reality, children often love stories and writing just as much, and sometimes more, than adults do. As for the poem "The Flight of the Reader," I also enjoyed how Collins explored and explained his views on us as the readers. I found it very fascinating to get a glimpse into the mind of the author because I feel like it helps us better understand him.
DeleteI truly enjoyed reading your analysis of Billy Collins’ poetry. I agree wholeheartedly with your interpretations of “Introduction to Poetry” and “First Reader”. I remember reading “Introduction to Poetry” in eighth grade, and ever since I’ve been enamored with the same fact you noted, that the metaphor so clearly displays how impatient some people can be with poetry. I agree that “First Reader” displays that child-like point of view of the grandeur that is being able to read, and the fact that every child enjoys stories - they’re not just left to the adult mind.
DeleteI liked your opinions on “The Flight of the Reader” especially and found your opinions rather insightful, but the one thing I was curious about in your response was when you said that “Authors can live without their readers, they just wouldn’t be authors anymore.” I hadn’t thought of that interpretation while I was reading it, instead I saw more that he would still be an author, he would not lose that desire, but the playful aspect of his writing would be less present without the reader, the person whom he “[sails] paper airplanes” at. Although, I find your interpretation very interesting and thought-provoking. I liked your opinions on “The Flight of the Reader” especially and found your opinions rather insightful, but the one thing I was curious about in your response was when you said that “Authors can live without their readers, they just wouldn’t be authors anymore.” I hadn’t thought of that interpretation while I was reading it, instead I saw more that he would still be an author, he would not lose that desire, but the playful aspect of his writing would be less present without the reader, the person whom he “[sails] paper airplanes” at. Although, I find your interpretation very interesting and thought-provoking.
After reading the novel Sailing Alone Around the Room by Billy Collins, the three poems that were most meaningful to me were The Lesson, Earthling, and Splitting Wood.
ReplyDeleteTo start, The Lesson by Billy Collins stood out to me with brilliantly strong personification. The poem starts out with "In the morning when I found History snoring heavily on the couch". By starting out with this line, it shows that History is being personified as a person. As the poem progresses, it shows the narrator taking off History's overcoat and wearing it out as if History really owned an overcoat. At the end of the poem, the personification of History turns into a little humor when it shows how once the narrator returned home with the raincoat, History panicked and made sure that all of the major battles and english queens were still existent within the overcoat. This poem also contains the the overcoat symbolizing all of history. This part of the poem was meaningful to me because I thought that it is interesting that one object would be able to recap all of history. My only question about this poem is how does the winter and ice play a part in this poem. I am confused of why the author decided to add these details into the poem.
Next, the poem Earthling by Billy Collins stood out to me because it makes the reader appreciate their existence on Earth. This poem has more of a literal feel rather than a figurative feel. The author gives a great comparison of how Pluto and Mercury would make you feeling if you on them. Pluto's gravity making you weigh about five tons, and Mercury's gravity making you only one ounce. Showing these two comparisons makes the author think if they would really enjoy being on another planet. At the end of the poem, Billy simply says "How much better to step onto the simple bathroom scale", showing that our gravity on earth gives everyone a happy and familiar feeling. Another interesting thing about this poem that stood out to me was how the author started the conversation of the planets by relating scales in planetariums. The author then follows up and concludes his poem with another scale analogy. This shows how the poem contains great parallelism and sticks to the main theme.
Lastly, the poem Splitting Wood by Billy Collins caught my attention with it being so simple yet extremely meaningful. This poem starts with the author just describing the forest. The forest was full and thick many years ago and now it is half of what it was. Billy then writes of how the ax hits the logs and splits them. Billy uses as strong comparison of the log being split into two as described as two lovers, once secretly bound. What struck me most in this poem was the ending. Billy ended the poem saying "now rushed into this brightness as if by a shutter that, once opened, can never be closed." This ending was very meaningful to me because it relates to the being of the poem when Billy explained how the forests were being destroyed. This ending symbolizes not only that the logs can never be put back together, but it shows us that the damage that we do now can never be fixed in the future. This poem was my favorite poem within this novel due to its hidden yet strong interpretation of the future.
Many of the poems that Billy Collins included in "Sailing Alone Around the Room" I found to be understated in their tone yet they possessed the ability to provoke complex thought about the very simple and most candid aspects of life. I enjoyed how, Collins, in just a short piece of literature was able to make me see everyday things from such a different point of view. The three poems that most appealed to me were Forgetfulness, The History Teacher, and Man Listening to Disc. Forgetfulness discusses just what the title suggests, the inevitable fact that we all forget things. We forget things that we learn in school, we forget people’s names, and we forget names of books we’ve read. Collins mentions things that everyone learns and subsequently forgets like the quadratic equation and the order of the planets to make the feeling of forgetfulness relatable. Collins also highlights the common cycle of forgetfulness by describing the first stages as “slipping away” as if just slightly out of reach, then he admits that the knowledge enters oblivion where it is “not even lurking in some obscure corner of your spleen,” it is eventually unattainable, completely out of reach. Collins makes this feeling of forgetfulness seem almost haunting with the eerie tone he produces. Especially at the poem’s close where he describes things we can’t remember keeping us up at night, sometimes even awakening us in the middle of the night and forcing us to look up the trivial fact that we’ve forgotten. The History Teacher was also particularly interesting to me because I appreciate the sense of irony that Collins produces in the subject of the poem. Collins writes of a man, a history teacher, who tries to protect his students’ innocence by not teaching them the true cruelties of history, but a slightly less harsh version of the truth. Collins piece possesses a satirical tone by poking fun at this naïve teacher who teaches the Ice Age to his students as the “Chilly Age.” The irony of the poem is that the very students the hopeful teacher is trying to protect no longer hold the innocence he seeks to maintain. Little does he know that in the schoolyard the students torment the weak, the same way people of the world have done in wars that he isn’t completely truthful about. The last poem that most provoked my interest was Man Listening to Disc in which Collins writes of a man going about his daily business, walking down the street with his earphones in his ears listening to his favorite musicians. The music allows the man to be wrapped in his own little world in the midst of this busy street. Collins uses a simile to describe this feeling that many of us like this man experience; Collins writes: “I cannot help feeling even more like the center of the universe,” as the man walks along entranced by the music. Reading this poem made me realize that, I, too, have this same feeling of being at the center of it all, not bothering to take in my surroundings when I’m focused on my own favorite playlist and Collins interesting way of realizing this himself caused me to question why I do this same simple thing.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading Julia’s response to Billy Collins’ poetry it has helped me better understand some of the poems. I saw that we have the same thoughts about the poem, The History Teacher. We both talked about the teacher’s willingness to protect his student’s innocence in our responses. I found Julia’s analysis of the irony in the poem interesting, even though the history teacher is working so hard to protect his students from the ugly in the world, the students go out to schoolyard and treat other students badly. The student’s behaviors mirror the actions of the truth of the wars he is protecting his students from. At first I didn’t see this in the poem but this analysis has helped me have a better understanding of this poem. Julia’s response to the poem Man Listening to Disc also interested me because at first I didn’t like this poem but, this response has helped me better understand. The music allows Collins to enter his own world as he walks down the street. Lastly, I found it interesting when she talked about also having the same feeling of being in your own world when listening to your own music.
DeleteJoe Arnau 7/29/15
ReplyDeleteThe Poetry of Billy Collins
In Sailing Alone around the room, a collection of poems written by Billy Collins, there are a few poems that appeal to me. One of the poems that I found very interesting was The History Teacher. The speaker of the poem appears to be against the way that the teacher teaches his students about events that have occurred in the real world. The reader can tell that the speaker of the poem doesn’t agree with the teacher because the tone of the poem is a bit accusing. The diction in this poem is very simple. Throughout the poem, the language is not complex at all. Another thing Collins used in the poem was satire. There were a few funny lines in the poem such as “The War of the Roses took place in a garden” and when “The Spanish Inquisition was nothing more than an outbreak of questions.” This poem was great because I enjoyed the funny takes on what the teacher is telling his student about the Boer War, Ice Age, and he Stone Age. Another poem that I found interesting was The Best Cigarette because It was a poem about overcoming a challenge that was in front of him. Collins states that “the best were on those mornings when I would have a little something going on the typewriter.” Collins creates imagery in the poems when describing when he liked having a cigarette. He describes how he enjoyed them “at the end of a long dinner” or “on a white beach.” I found it interesting how he was remembering how he most enjoyed cigarettes when he was writing but, he has quit, which is known because he states “I sent my last one out a car window…years ago.” The third poem that I found interesting was Snow Day. I enjoyed this one because this kind of weather is seen in the winter on Long Island. That day where all the schools are closed and the public building are all shut down. Imagery is present in this entire poem. For example, when Collins describes the snow falling he says “its white flag waving over everything.” The tone that Collins uses gives readers the sense of how snow can be fun. It’s clear that Collins is a fan of the snow when it’s stated that “I am a willing prisoner in this house.” This displays that he is happy with the snow and he has no problem with being in the house and relaxing. I found these 3 poems by Billy Collins to be interesting.
Tyler Nill - August 11, 2015
DeleteAfter examining Joe’s personal response to the three poems that most appealed to him, I noticed that we used one of the same poems, which was Snow Day. I completely agree to the idea that this represents the weather in Long Island because over the past winter we received a lot of snow. Even though I didn’t describe the imagery that Collins puts out there, I definitely agree with the quote you used, “its white flag waving over everything,” because it shows that the snow just doesn’t hit certain spots, it covers the entire landscape. I also found the History Teacher very interesting because it’s an unconventional way of teaching history topics to their students but also found it funny how he seriously understated certain events in world history just to keep the students “innocent.” I hope that a teacher wouldn’t be that crazy to teach their students the way the teacher taught their students in the poem, because I don’t think the teacher would last very long in the educational field. Lastly, I also found The Best Cigarette interesting because it shows a person reminiscing on how he misses his cigarettes, but quit them. Another reason I found this poem interesting is that it’s incredibly hard to quit cigarettes because even though he quit years ago, he still remembers the feelings of smoking cigarettes.
Alex Jaquin 8/11/15
DeleteI enjoyed reading Joe's analysis of the poetry he related to. I also appreciated the use of satire in The History Teacher. I found the simplistic and funny explanations of significant historical events entertaining like Joe did. I thought Joe was spot on when he felt the author’s reminiscent feelings from when he smoked in the past. I thought it was neat how the author made the cigarette almost an extension of himself through explaining why each cigarette was “the best cigarette.” I also liked the imagery he used when describing himself as a locomotive with his little puffs of smoke symbolizing progress. When I read Snow Day I could imagine the poem taking place on Long Island just like Joe and Tyler. I like how Billy Collins gave the feeling of everything stopping and closing in Snow Day. With noiseless drifts and blankness the outside world is quiet and peaceful. He then changes pace when listing the closing of schools and how the children now get to go outside and runaround in the snow. I thought Joe’s analysis was smart and insightful.
Joe, I think you did a phenomenal job in your response. The History teacher was a favorite of mine too because of the way Collins used humor and sarcasm in his explanation of lesson plans. However, I would disagree in the way that you said the speaker is against the way the teacher teaches. I believe that Collins showed an admiration for the teacher in the way the teacher carried himself/herself despite the opposition faced. However, I agree that the poem is somewhat simple and I think it adds a nice touch. The Best Cigarette is another poem that I enjoyed reading, even though it is not as relatable. It is a great metaphor for things you once enjoyed, but have left behind and now miss. I do find it interesting as well that Collins describes his favorite memories having a smoke even though he states he quit smoking. It is a unique way to describe what he once needed so much, and perhaps now misses. I reread Snow Day because I did not remember the whole poem. I do agree with Joe in that it reminds me of Long Island and the joy of having a snow day.
DeleteOlivia Zemmour
ReplyDeleteOne of the poems that appealed to me the most from Billy Collins’ “Sailing Alone Around the Room” was the poem Forgetfulness. I found this poem to be very relatable in that I often find myself trying to remember simple things I’ve learned in school such as “the address of an uncle” or “the capital of Paraguay”. Collins lists these specific topics in order to relate better to the reader. He begins the poem by explaining the process of forgetting memories and information. At first, as Collins describes it, we forget small details. Eventually, we think we may still be able to remember, we think the information we are trying to find is just within reach, but realistically we don’t remember and we never will. Collins’ tone throughout the piece can be perceived as frightening. The idea of no longer having the ability of remembering information we once could remember so easily is sad, and in a way frightening. The next poem that I found interesting was Passengers. It’s common while traveling via airplane to think that your flight could be the end of your life. Many people are terrified by the idea of soaring across the ocean while thousands of miles up above the deep sea. Collins, however, remains very calm while discussing the possibilities of his flight. He observes the people accompanying him on the plane and encounters a feeling of unity with them. He knows that he has almost nothing in common with any of them, but relates to them through their common potential death. He notices the little unique things about each person, such as the woman combing her daughter’s hair or the girl cooling her tea, as if he was the last person to be able to observe them, or that these simple tasks these people complete were the last they would ever do. Lastly, the poem Days appealed to me because Collins describes life through a different perspective. He states that each day is a gift, “…mysteriously placed in your waking hand or set upon your forehead...” just before you wake up. Collins provokes the reader to then ponder the fact that one day one could simply not wake up. The reader can then appreciate our time alive on Earth and be thankful for waking each morning. Collins then describes a metaphorical ladder that is eventually needed in order to continue stacking more and more days after each passes. Collins' appreciative tone implies that we should be grateful that we are able to do so and that when we say that it's "Just another Wednesday" we should know that each day is more special than the one before.
After reading Billy Collin’s poetry, I see that my thoughts are very similar to Olivia’s. I agree that the relatableness of Collin’s poem Forgetfulness, is what makes it so great. At first we start by forgetting only small things like “the address of an uncle” or “the capital of Paraguay”, but at some point we must accept that many things will be permanently forgotten. Forgetting things is never easy, and like Olivia said, it is both sad and frightening. Passengers was also a poem I found very interesting and, as she said, I think it is because of the way Collins remains calm as he considers his, and the other passengers’, possible deaths. Most people would be frightened by those thoughts but instead Collin’s feels a sense of “unity” and relates to each person even as they do the most ordinary things. I agree with Olivia that the poem Days is interesting because of its different perspective on life. By stating that everyday is a gift and that each day gets better, the reader does feel more appreciative for every day they are still alive.
DeleteAfter reading Olivia’s thoughts on the poem “Forgetfulness,” I found that I agree with many of her points. It makes the reader sit back and think of all the good and bad memories, and then makes the reader wonder what parts of their lives have disappeared without their knowing. After I read that poem, many things that I had forgotten about resurfaced. The point of the poem is to leave the reader with his thoughts and a lot of the time, this little break in our lives is just what we need to remember. We are so focused on our future, that we forget our past and some vital things that make us who we are. So when I was finished reading this poem, I was also sad and I wished that I could remember what I had lost. But the reality is that it is all still there and waiting for something to trigger the memory and bring it back. This poem was a very effective catalyst to bring the memories back. The deeper meaning of this poem was to bring your memories back, not fall into sadness about what you have forgotten. In this way, Billy Collins succeeded and is a genius.
DeleteTyler Nill - July 28, 2015
ReplyDeleteThe first poem that caught my attention is Snow Day because the poem uses figurative language to get the point across that even though outside their house, the world is blank and "the landscape vanished,” but the poem also shows the life that is sparked outside by the snow with the children “climbing and sliding.” I like how Billy Collins uses repetition in the middle of the poem such as “The Kiddie Corner School is closed, the Ding-Dong School, closed,” to show the effect that the snow does to the surrounding neighborhoods and how it really grinds the town to a halt. I also like how Billy Collins conveys how the narrator of the poem is a child through actions like shaking the tree to dump snow all over them or listening to girls whisper and spread rumors.
The second poem that appealed to me is Insomnia because Billy Collins’ poem shows how troubled a person’s mind is when they’re an insomniac and what they have to go through when they want to go to sleep, but just can’t. I like how this poem hits home to anyone that reads it because I’d be shocked if no one had trouble sleeping at least one night in their lives and they can relate to how annoying it can be when you can’t sleep. I also like the tone that Billy Collins puts out in this poem because insomnia isn’t supposed to be happy or sad, it’s supposed to be sad because you feel bad for the narrator that he or she can’t sleep and you can also relate to those experiences.
The third and last poem that appealed to me is Man Listening to Disc because I like how Billy Collins mentions a few of the best jazz musicians such as Sonny Rollins and Thelonious Monk. I also like the imagery that he conveys in this poem such as how he describes each jazz musician along with each instrument that the musician used. Another reason why I like this poem is because Billy Collins “calls out” the pedestrians walking along or near him by saying that they should “watch their step” because they’re walking all the way downtown.
Alexandra Moore
ReplyDeleteOne poem by Billy Collins that I like is titled Insomnia. Throughout the poem we are taken on a vivid journey through the author’s fight to fall asleep. Billy Collins connects us to his poem by using clichés and imagery. He begins the poem by saying “after counting all the sheep in the world I enumerate the wildebeests, snails, camels, skylarks, etc.” As children, many of us were told to count sheep when we were having trouble falling asleep. Using this cliché that I am so familiar with really drew me into the poem. Collins continues on by creating a scene of him “yelling across the rising water at preoccupied Noah as his wondrous ark sails by and begins to grow smaller.” It is now simple to picture what Billy Collins intended us to. He continually uses imagery as he describes “the giraffe couple, their necks craning over the roof” and “all the fish in creation leaping a fence in a field of water, one colorful species after another.” Insomnia is an engaging poem that helps us place ourselves in a time where we were once not able to sleep and left imagining floating through waters and counting animals or zoos to assist us in dozing off.
Another poem I enjoy is Forgetfulness. Billy Collins connects the poem to all humans because we all grow older and as we grow older we all forget. The poem begins with a scenario in which forgetting a novel is implied. I find this interesting because though I spent a huge amount of time studying certain novels in and out of my classrooms, I can still find this statement relatable and I’m sure many of my classmates can as well. First the author slips out of our memory, then the title, the plot, the conclusion, and soon it’s as if we never even read the writing at all. Collins mainly uses personification throughout this poem to illuminate the memories slowly being lost. As we age, our memories “retire to the southern hemisphere of the brain, to a little fishing village where there are no phones.” It’s as if our memories grew legs and walked away from us to start a life in a place Collins helped us picture using imagery. All that we are fighting to remember “has floated away down a dark mythological river whose name begins with an L as far as you can recall.” Forgetfulness is a poem that I find interesting because everyone goes through it. He is writing to prepare the youth to face aging and comfort the old who are beginning to see the effects. Though it may start small with forgetting the quadratic equation or a state flower, it grows to no longer remembering how to swim or ride a bicycle and in the end that is okay.
Lastly, my favorite poem by Billy Collins is The Flight of the Reader. This poem is about Billy Collins reliance on his readers and we see this through imagery and metaphors. The poem starts with the author stating that you would think he and his readers would have had enough of one another after the countless “yellow and white flowers, all the sleepless nights — the toy car going in circles on the bed table.” After all of his works, his faithful readers “stayed perched on my shoulder, cricket or bluebird, wild parrot digging your claws into my loud shirt.” He is comparing his audience’s presence to that of a bird who won’t leave him. When questioning why his readers don’t leave, he uses metaphors to describe annoying gnats as pestering meaning to poems and whippets locked in cages to anxiety that he won’t let reach his readers. Collins shows his vulnerability when he admits he would “hate to think of that morning when I will wake up to find you gone.” Though he feels this way, he also suggests he can live without his readers. He says, “It’s not like I have a crush on you and instead of writing my five-paragraph essay I am sailing paper airplanes across the room at you.” Collins states it isn’t “exactly” like that, but clearly the poet does need and depend on his readers to an extent.
Although I did not write about Insomnia in my first response, it was another favorite for me. I enjoyed this poem because it makes you feel like a little kid again, laying in bed with your imagination running. Everyone has experienced some form of "insomnia" and that is what makes this poem so welcoming and comforting. Similar to what Alley has said, I too am familiar with the cliché of counting sheep. From movies to shows to even songs this common phrase does not even strike me as strange anymore and this is why Collins' poems come together so coherently, he manages to take something that might confuse or frustrate average people and turn it into something simple and understandable. I agree with Alley that Insomnia is an engaging poem because lines such as, "then I add up all the zoos and aquariums, country by country", keep the poem light and somewhat comical to almost comfort the reader that they are not alone in their uphill battle to fall asleep. The reference to Noah's arc also intrigued me, because this is Collin's twist on your average nighttime thoughts, yet it completely makes sense. I never thought of this poem in such depth before and Alley's analysis really helped me formulate my own thoughts because I agree with her insightful response.
DeleteSailing Alone Around the Room by Billy Collins evokes many senses and emotions while reading, this interesting piece of literature is unlike anything I have read before and has helped me open my eyes on simple topics that I had never previously thought of in depth. Right from the beginning The Lesson stuck out as one of my favorite poems. Personifying "History", is an ingenious and creative idea. Being a history enthusiast this poem was of course very meaningful to me, even comical in the fact that "he [History] rummaged… making sure no major battle or English queen had fallen out..", because before reading this poem I had never thought of history like that, as little pieces that could be easily lost or forgotten. In a way History can be viewed as a relationship with yourself, all the lessons you've learned are kept in your trench coat pockets protecting you on your cold walk through life, which is why only the trench coat bears icicles and the narrator stays warm inside.
ReplyDeleteAnother poem that stuck out for me was The Dead, this is because everyone has dealt with death, from a fish to a cat to a friend to a grandparent. Similar to Billy Collins, I like to imagine an afterlife of happiness and wisdom where you can look down on the world below you, and this is why this poem has appealed to me. The metaphor of heaven being a endless river that you row down is extremely symbolic in the fact that after you die you never really go away. When my grandmother passed away, my parents, aunts, uncles, and cousins all wrote messages to her, small things we never got the chance to tell her and set them off tied to balloons, so having a poet reassure me that I am being watched over by her appeals to me very much. I would say this poem is very uplifting with the moral being, the dead are always with us.
The last poem that I found interesting was Where I Live, this is because of the juxtaposition of math and nature. Often, people believe that there is math in nature as the speaker points out by describing the geometry of the nine rooms and other things about the house. The speaker imagines things that might have been, like an old orchard, to compare to her fathers death and how he himself is no longer there, but traces of him still remain. The speaker uses this as a metaphor to sitting in the house her father once lived in, which gives her the feeling that she has lost control. While the death of a loved one is so much bigger than she takes the time to notice how small the raindrops are, mirroring her own feelings of how insignificant she is in the bigger picture of the world. The reason why I felt this poem was so interesting was the way the author could tie together completely different topics, death, math and nature and unite them as one in a coherent and moving poem.
Reading The Dead by Billy Collins evoked the same emotions for me as it did for Ellie. I too have dealt with death and find the poem has a calming tone that soothes away the sadness we once felt. Collins creates a scenario to reassure us that the people we have lost are still looking down on us and watching over the little things whether it be “putting on our shoes or making a sandwich” as they “look down through the glass-bottom boats of heaven as they row themselves slowly through eternity.” He allows us to depict a heaven in which the dead are able to sail across the sky while they look down on us through clear waters. We all imagine the ones that have passed watching us create the best moments of our lives but Collins helps us remember that the small things we do are being watched over as well. I also agree with Ellie that the poem is overall uplifting, but the last line in which Collins states the dead “wait, like parents, for us to close our eyes” produces a sense of sorrow in us. Though we want to be watched over, we hope the dead are not waiting for us to join them.
DeleteThe first poem I enjoyed was Fishing on the Susquehanna in July .This poem really appealed to me because Collins reflects on experiences in life. Using imagery, he writes about fishing on the Susquehanna, only he’s never been. Despite never being there, his writing helps me picture what it’s like to fish on the Susquehanna. We can imagine the “black cloud-ruffled sky” overhead, while we sit in the “small, green flat-bottom boat” with our “whip of a pole.” His imagery takes me to a place neither he nor I have ever been. However, his tone is somber and wistful, because he isn’t really living these experiences. He only sees them in paintings, but never actually lives them. This is very deep, speaking to the fact that so many people choose to live their lives through the activities of others, and not their own.
ReplyDeleteThe second poem that interested me was Introduction to Poetry. This poem outlined my views on poetry in general. Collins talks about his true reason for writing poetry, to inspire us. He uses figurative language to stimulate our imaginations. He wants us to “drop a mouse into a poem and watch him probe his way out,” or “water-ski across the surface of a poem.” Through this diction, he tells us that poetry is for the senses, and is unique from person to person. However, his light-hearted and fantastical tone in the beginning turns to a spiteful, almost angry tone at the end. He uses personification to make the poem a sentient thing, which is tied to a chair and “[beaten] with a hose,” by those who don’t understand his poetry, and look for one singular meaning, to which there is none.
Finally, I also like The Death of the Hat. In this poem, Collins takes a seemingly unimportant object, the hat, and brings it to life with imagery and historical references. He talks about something commonplace at one time, that has now nearly disappeared from life. I was particularly attracted to this poem because, who would write a poem about a hat? However, Collins helps me see a time I was not part of, when men wore hats with their initials engraved into them, where everyone wore a hat to work. Collins tells the importance of hats when he talks about meaningful historic events. “The day war was declared,” referring to one of the World Wars, Collins dutifully notes that everyone in the street was wearing a hat. “When a ship loaded with me sank,” referring to the Titanic, Collins notes that the passengers were wearing hats. The fact that this object was around, yet unnoticed, for all these events speaks to the truth of nature; that the most important things can and may be forgotten. However, nature never forgets, as Collins unusually ends on a light tone, talking about all the natural hats in the world. Mice with their “thin fur hats,” and spruce trees with their “white hats of snow.”
I also found the poem "The Death of the Hat" interesting it wasn't my favorite but it got me thinking about cultural changes, even small ones like the hat. I also was enthralled by how Collins related a small piece of history ,the hat, to all of these much larger events and ideas like the sinking of the titanic that you mentioned. This poem gave me an idea of all the stories a hat could tell from wars to daily life of a blue collar worker in the 20's, even though the hat isn't a very important piece of history it is a long lasting piece outlasting most all the events mentioned in the poem. The hat also made me think about other things that similarly slipped away into history without being noticed for instance gloves were another garment that was a staple of social dress that not many remember. This poem reminded me of my grandmother and how she would talk about the old days when she was a young girl and would wear long white velvet gloves when she would leave the house to go out casual or black tie it didn't matter just like hats gloves were a thing that people would just wear as a social norm.
DeleteHey Ian, some really cool idea in your response that I didn't even noticed in my readings. I didn't catch the idea of living your life through others in "Fishing on the Susquehanna." I just thought Collins was trying to be comical, but now I see there was deeper meaning to this poem. Which is a trend we see in a lot of Collins pieces. Taking them at face value, they are pieces about every day life, rich with humor and sarcasm. However, there is more at play in his writing, Collins is usually trying to portray a more serious matter under his nonchalant tone.
Delete"Introduction to Poetry" appeared to be a very popular poem, and for obvious reasons. As I mentioned in my interpretation, high schoolers are trained to extrapolate as much meaning as possible out of writing, when really, they (we) would rather just read and enjoy poetry in its most basic form. We truly do "beat poems with a hose," to get the "true" meaning.
"Death of a Hat" was another poem I realized I missed important details on, and have went back and read with a whole new view. I have always been intrigued by the idea of how what we do, who we are, who we loved, what we accomplish, everything about us will one day be forgotten. The idea of leaving a legacy, a name, some trace of your existence is a topic that has plagued many people. It has started wars and brought death but also created great works of art, symphonies and epics. The best way this idea has been expressed, in my opinion, is in the following line from the Nick Cave song "More News From Nowhere" ( great song, if you get the chance check it out it deals with many interesting themes and mentions works such as the "Odyssey"): "Don't it make you feel so sad, don't the blood rush to your feet, to think everything you do today, tomorrow is obsolete. Technology and women, and little children too, don't it make you feel blue, don't it make you feel blue."
The Man in the Moon by Billy Collins was another poem that interested me because of the plot. The poem starts off with the man describing the moon, when he was a child, as a desolate and isolated place, a place where he could not imagine, “Such loneliness, such coldness”. Now much older, the man was driving over roads when he looked up at the moon a saw a different picture. He uses personification to make a moon a “Pale bachelor” who has fallen in love with “The dark earth”. By using personification he makes the reader feel as if the moons no longer an “Enormous, stern, [and] aloft” face but rather a “well-groomed and full of melancholy” one. This poem appeals to me because of the way the moon is given a personality, and how it shows how overtime our views can change. When the character was a child he believed the moon was frightening but now as an adult (we can assume this cause he’s driving) he sees it as a young man who has fallen in love and is trying to create a relationship with earth. This poem shows how our views never really stay the same, and how change can be a good thing.
ReplyDeletePurity by Billy Collins was the second poem that appealed to me because of its message about influences. The poem talks about a characters writing process and every step of it. Before the author begins writing he strips himself of his body parts starting with the flesh, next the organs, and finally the penis or sometimes he chooses to leave it on depending on what he is writing. The symbolic meaning behind the body parts is influence. The skin represents the “preoccupations” of the body and when he removes it his writing will be pure and free from speculation. The organs represent a beat that when kept in his body interferes with his own writing rhythm. Finally the penis represents love and when he leaves it on most of his poems talk about the connection between “Sex and death”. This poem appealed to me because it shows how we all are filled with assumptions and predetermined ideas that shouldn’t be involved in writing. In our everyday lives we see and hear things that’ll influence us and change our views, we should allow positive things to influence us and deter from the negative ones.
Splitting Wood by Billy Collins was the third poem that interested me because of its message. The poem itself talks about the splitting of wood and how riveting it is. After the wood is split the author uses similes to help the reader visualize the splitting of it and how its like “twins shot through the heart”. He uses personification to show how sometimes the wood even though it was just split, stays standing almost as if it was “stunned” by what has just happened. What interested me the most was after the wood was split the “darkness inside the tree they once shared” was now completely filled with light. He then goes on to describe it as a shutter that once opened can never be closed. This message shows us how once something has been changed there’s no way of unchanging it. The damage is done and we must learn from our mistakes to prevent it from happening in the future. We mustn’t dwell in the past, rather we need to keep looking forward into the future.
"My Number" was the first poem in the book that really appealed to me. In the first stanza, Collins asks, "is death miles away from this house, reaching for a window in Cincinnati or breathing down the neck of a lost hiker in British Columbia." I thought the imagery of a mysterious personified death "reaching" or "breathing" as they are taking another life was an interesting way to describe an approaching death. The ominous tone of "shaking open the familiar cloak, its hood raised like the head of a crow, and removing the scythe from the trunk," makes the poem more interesting and gives it a foreboding and immediate feeling as it reminds you of your own unavoidable death.
ReplyDeleteOnly a bit further into the book, the poem "Forgetfulness" struck a cord. Forgetting so much of our lives can be so frustrating, and I think Collins captured that frustration in lines such as, "what ever it is that you are struggling to remember, it is no longer poised on the tip of your tongue, not even lurking in some obscure corner of your spleen." The choice of words like "poised" and "lurking" help push forward the idea that although you once had this information ready to go at any moment, now you can't remember, no matter how hard you try, you just don't know it anymore. The tone becomes melancholy when Collens tells the reader that "even now as you memorize the oder of the planets, something else is slipping away, a state flower perhaps, the address of an uncle, the capital of Paraguay." It seems as if he is telling us that there is nothing we can do to stop this from happening, and almost taunting us as he says that it is probably happening right now.
The final poem that really spoke to me was "Lines Composed Over Three Thousand Miles from Tintern Abbey." I particularly enjoyed the poem’s focus on how we never enjoy things as much as we did the first time around, because we remember it being better than it actually was. The choice of words such as, "I'm not feeling as chipper as I did" and "the quality of things has diminished" creates a nostalgic tone. It gives the reader a sense of longing for a better time, maybe prompting them to think of something they enjoyed more the first time around due the their embellished memories of the experience.
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DeleteKatherine Klima
DeleteI thought your analysis of the poems were excellent. You seemed to have read each one carefully and truly understood what was written. Out of all of them, I especially liked your analysis of “My Number." I completely agree with your observation of the ominous tone. I thought it was interesting how Collins forebodes our death and made us think about when our own numbers will be up. Elements like that are what made the poem more impactful and intense.
I thought it was veey interesting you focused on the feeling that the poem gave you in each of the poems you wrote about, and how the next thing would be the imagery that you focused on. I feel it really speaks about you with the way you analyzed these poems. I also enjoy your intepretation of these poems as it makes sense in the way you explain it even if it was not the way I saw it at first. uour analysis of "Forgetfulness" was very interesting, I really liked your opening line because it was something we could all agree with.
DeleteAlex Jaquin
ReplyDeleteThe three poetry pieces by Billy Collins I appreciated the most are “Directions”, “Some Final Words”, and “The Movies”. I found the three pieces to be thought provoking, nostalgic, and motivational. The literary devices Collins masterfully weaves into his poetry bring the words to life.
The poem “Directions” is an invitation from the author for you to join him on a hike. The way Collins accomplishes this neat concept is through rhetorical questions and a ton of detail. Collins asks the reader if they know the brick path in back of the house or the small foot bridge with the broken railing. This creative way to add details inside rhetorical questions forces the reader to imagine the setting. The author chronologically leads the reader down the hiking trail. This poem reminded me of a hike I took in the Catskills recently. The author describes many things I observed on my hike such as “the flowing spring water” and “the shadows of clouds passing over hills.” The realness of the poem and the elegance of it being an invitation really connected with me.
“Some Final Words” was a piece I found incredibly motivating. When I read this piece I felt the strive Collins faces as a creative professional. He is tasked with creating something original that can be typed onto a page of paper. A task like that can be tedious and probably feels impossible sometimes. The use of pathos and very direct imagery that constantly shifts gives this piece intensity and direction steered by Collins. Collins begins the piece with the concept that the past is meaningless. He conveys this through the life of a composer named Johann Strauss. Johann’s younger brother tragically fell off a stage while he was conducting. He died in front of a “stunned audience on its feet.” Collins writes about the ridiculousness of their formal clothes in the face of death. The images of such a horrific accident, followed by Collins telling you to simply forget the composer effectively explain his purpose in writing the piece. It is about the fact that you will probably be forgotten no matter your prestige or creations. You are “a thin reed blowing in the night.” The take away is that you matter to you so do what you want because you love doing it. You should have the “encore look” Strauss had in his eyes.
“The Movies” is about escapism from reality. It is the reason we watch movies, read books, and listen to music. We are all guilty of wanting to be the hero or heroine of a film. A subconscious form of narcissism that fills out mind as we are absorbed into a new world. Collins scatters personification and metaphors throughout “The Movies”. Collins inventively personifies the bed and tv to a horse and stage coach that pulls him through films. Collins uses familiar movie scenes in combination with personification such as “the fellow who fishes a gold watch from his pocket” and “the man with the dangerous eyes.” Collins ends the poem by completing his adventure through the movies back home and back to reality.
Hey Jaquin, haven’t seen you in a while, long time no see. I completely agree with your response about the poem “The Movies”, I also found this poem as a nice representation of how one would escape into the world of the film and venture out as one of the characters doing things only possible in the world of the film. Collin does a great job at placing the reader at a familiar point where we can all remember the feeling adventure, losing our sense of self as we indulge of mind in the story at play. Though I don’t quite remember “Directions, giving it a quick glance I could see how you praise Collin for his use of rhetorical questions and attention to detail. The manner of Collin persuades the reader to join him in his walk, he taps into a longing desire of what we would like to expect nature as. The description he constructs lures the reader into knowing more about the destinations he knows than the usually drab we pass by walking through the town or the side walk. His path is interesting and intriguing and we desire to experience his world first hand, but instead we stuck with his simple escapade, asking us if we experienced it ourselves before.
DeleteOlivia Marsala
ReplyDeleteThe first poem that truly intrigued me was My Number. The title itself first struck me as having a number of meanings, such as a telephone number, or even a lucky number. Just from reading the first stanza of the poem it becomes clear that Collins’ “number” stands for the time in which he will die. Collins ponders on the idea that death is always busy, planning and plotting the demise of others. As the poem progresses, Collins lists possible situations death could be plotting, such as “tampering with air brakes” or “loosening the wooden beams of roller coasters”. Leading up to the last stanza it can be interpreted that death has arrived and Collins is speaking to it, trying to prolong his life. The overall idea of the poem can be seen as that even though death can occur at anytime, we as humans try anything and everything to avoid it, even if it means talking to death itself.
The second poem, titled Insomnia, stood out for me as it starts with Collins’ description of his inability to sleep. After he has counted “all the sheep in the world” as well as other animals, it isn't until the hours of the early morning that slumber has consumed him. Soon a nightmare of drowning turns darker as Noah, distracted by animals aboard the ark, sails passed Collins headed toward the horizon and leaves him behind. The idea behind this poem serves as a look into what insomniacs deal with during the hours at night in which others can easily sleep through. The tone of the poem isn’t very clear, instead allowing the reader to decide how Collins truly feels. The last stanza ends with Collins floating on his back counting fish, leaving the poem to end on the same note as it had started.
The third and final poem that has stuck with me is Forgetfulness. As someone who can remember names and faces very well, i pride myself on it, yet there is also an empty feeling that lingers when someone cannot remember you back. Collins starts the poem off with listing the small things we all forget over time, such as the author or plot of a novel. As the poem progresses Collins’ list of forgotten thoughts become more severe, such as how to swim or how to ride a bike. The overall tone of the poem is somber, reminding people just how much we can forget over time. The things we try to remember linger on the tips of our tongue but eventually fade completely, leaving room for new memories. Towards the end of our days, it is extremely unnerving to begin thinking of all things truly forgotten.
It is true that the first time I read "My Number", that I had no idea its significance to the poem and had to think to understand that it was the "number of years" that he had left before death. As Olivia said, Collins basically personifies death, perhaps giving a grim reaper-ish image, whereas we all know that death is more of a force of nature. Anyone with insomnia would also certainly be able to relate and reflect upon Collins' Insomnia poem. He basically sees sleep as a necessary evil, though for some, more difficult to achieve that for others. Forgetfulness is a melancholy poem that really does make you think of all the things that you might have forgotten or will forget over the years. Everyone wants to hold on to everything, but it just isn't possible... and as Liv says, as we near the later half of our lives, the more important and precious things will be forgotten, which is a truly terrifying concept. Our minds, or brains, I find, are like computer hard drives, with x amount of storage. Once you wish to add more content, certain more unimportant things need to be moved or deleted, making them either harder to find or completely gone. Personally, the memories of my childhood are so vague and fuzzy and basically nonexistent that they no longer feel like my own. It's scary, to say the least, and I'm sure Collins would agree with Liv and Liv. :)
DeleteThe three poems by Billy Collins which stood out most significantly to me were “Another Reason Why I Don’t Keep a Gun in the House”, “Forgetfulness”, and “Lines Lost Among Trees”.
ReplyDeleteThe reason for which “Another Reason Why I Don’t Keep a Gun in the House” stood out to me was because it reminded me of an old dog of mine, ironically named Beethoven, who could bark consistently, relentlessly, for hours. The neighbor’s dog who barks “the same high, rhythmic bark” becomes immediately embodied in the memory of Beethoven, and I can see him “sitting there in the oboe section barking” as clearly as if he were still alive. The irony of the poem, however, is what really entertained me. The idea that he puts on this music to block out the dog, but instead, the dog, in Collins’ mind, ends up being part of the music, albeit an annoying, “endless coda of barking”.
“Forgetfulness” appealed to me because, in a way, it’s easily relatable. Everyone knows the feeling of forgetting something that used to be in your own store of common knowledge, or the feeling of forgetting everything about a book that you know you’ve read. Collins personifies these memories; he chronicles as the name of the author goes, “...followed obediently by the title, the plot, ... the entire novel ... which suddenly becomes one you have never read...”, and how the memories “you used to harbor decided to retire to ... a little fishing village where there are no phones”, and how those memories, which are not “on the tip of your tongue” are actually long gone. When he mentions that they have “floated away down a dark and mythological river whose name begins with an L as far as you can recall...”, he alludes to the river Lethe in Greek mythology, one of the five rivers of Hades, from which the dead would wash away their memories (for lack of a better term). This allusion, actually, is what made the entire poem stand out. He anthropomorphized the memories in a way that encouraged the reader to test his or her own memory, to see just how many of these things have floated down his or her own river Lethe.
Finally, the poem “Lines Lost Among Trees” particularly attracted my attention because, like anyone who tends toward writing as a hobby, coming up with a perfect saying, line, or idea with nowhere to write it, no sure way to remember the intricacies or brilliance of those lines you’ve created, is torturous and, even though the end product may turn out perfectly well, it is impossible not to imagine what it had been if there had been paper and a pen back when you had that stroke of brilliance. Collins uses multiple metaphors to describe those lines, such as their being a “handful of coins dropped through the grate of memory” and, in the end, he describes the little insight that came to him when he had nowhere to put it, as “wagging like the short tail of a perfectly obedient spaniel sitting by the door”.
All in all, these three poems most significantly affected me while reading Billy Collins’ collection, Sailing Alone Around the Room.
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DeleteKatherine Klima
DeleteI loved your analysis of the poems because they were all personal. I felt like you developed a special connection to each poem. For example, with your dog Beethoven, you were able to read the poem and remember an old memory of yours. I think that’s important to have whenever someone reads because it helps understand a poem better and connect to the author more. In the same poem “Another Reason Why I Don’t Keep A Gun in the House”, I liked how you found the dog becoming part of the music the most interesting. Many would enjoy the irony, but you went along with something different. I also loved how you pointed out the allusion of mythology in the poem “Forgetfulness” because it is something I feel like many would look over. Not everyone knows mythology well, so I think being able to understand the reference Collins makes also helped you as a reader understand and think about the poem more in depth. Overall, I really loved the analysis. It was a long and thoughtful response to three pieces of writing that stood out to you.
The three poems by Billy Collins that stand out to me are “The History Teacher,” “On Turning Ten,” and “Forgetfulness.” “The History Teacher” appeals to me because of the character depicted in the poem. The teacher is protective and tries to avoid the tragedies of life in his lessons to protect the innocence of his students. The tone of the piece is very calm and somewhat sarcastic in the descriptions given on historical events, “the Stone Age became the Gravel Age, named after the long driveways of the time.” This lightens the passage and makes it relatable to a certain witty teacher you may have had. The way Collins shows the teacher persevering through the hate, “messing up their hair and breaking their glasses” in order to teach the kids the way he believes they should be taught is what I found most interesting in the poem. I wonder if Collins based this poem off a teacher he once had or a teacher that he knew? “On Turning Ten” is a piece that everyone can relate to by looking back at their childhood. The landmark of turning ten years old and getting older is an idea that can still be related to years later. By using diction relating illnesses and the body, “a kind of measles of the spirit, a mumps of the psyche, a disfiguring chicken pox of the soul,” Collins brings out the uneasiness of aging. It is interesting in the last stanza how Collins says, “This is the beginning of sadness.” Turning ten is not necessarily the saddest day, however the anxiety of turning ten is faced differently by all. This could be made more dramatic because of something that happened Collins making the day more melancholy than most. My favorite poem in the book, “Forgetfulness,” is a retelling of the sad truth that we all forget seemingly important information. Collins personifies our memories by saying they, “retire to the southern hemisphere of the brain, to a little fishing village where there are no phones.” Collins shows us that these unreachable memories are off hiding in parts of the brain in which we can no longer grasp. The line in the poem that is most relatable is, “Whose name begins with an L as far as you can recall.” This is a statement we have all uttered when trying to recall the name of something we can not quite remember. It is a bittersweet poem in that in the end we lose recollection of all we have learned, but it is amazing as to what we once did know. All of the poems in this book are very interesting to me in their own way, however these are but three that spoke the loudest to me. Collins’s use of figurative language conveys his message in each piece he writes.
ReplyDelete“The History Teacher” was also one of my favorite poems in the book. I agree with Bryce’s analysis of how the teacher in this poem is trying to protect his students of their innocence. Collins definitely used a sarcastic tone throughout this piece, especially with the description of certain historical events. I also agree with how this poem may remind some of a teacher they may have had at some point. Even if not as extreme as the teacher depicted in this poem, we have all had a teacher at one point or another that would be witty at times. I also agree with the fact that “Forgetfulness” is one of the best poems in the book. Collins depicts how we all forget things that we wish we could remember. There are important events that have occurred in all of our lives that we all wish we could remember but it just disappears from our memory. The personification of our memories is the best part. Collins states that the memories have gone to a place in our brain that we can no longer reach. They are gone from our memories forever.
DeleteBilly Collins has written many wonderful poems yet only a few truly struck me in a way that was different than other literature that I have read. One such poem that stuck with me was the poem "The Lesson", this one I found interesting with its personification of history and the controlling idea that history is important and should be preserved. Also one particular part that caught me was "And placed its weight over my shoulder blades." the idea that history had weight to it, personified physical mass shown with the heft of histories coat. The coat also can signify the creator of history or the one who is creating it, that's another interesting point of it how the person who is wearing the coat or metaphorically creating popular history is penalized for forgetting any of it or loosing some of it. The second poem that held my attention was "Design" this poem was especially interesting due to its nature of perception, imagination, and perspective. I like this because its shows how people can look at the same thing and come up with completely different answers, like in the poem a circle of salt can be perceived and processed as "the arctic circle" or perhaps "the wheel of fortune", both of these answers can be right depending of the mind set of the person looking at the object, and that's one thing that i like about art and architecture is the openness and this poem touches on that subject that's why i like it so much. The repetition and short stanzas also give the poem a quick nature that feels like an idea just popping into someones head. The last poem I chose as a favorite is "The Butterfly Effect" I thoroughly enjoyed this poem, partially because I had prior knowledge about the actual effect in philosophy and think that its an interesting concept. The poem first starts with the theory where every action no matter how small can cause a larger effect over time, in the poem its a butterfly fluttering its wings causing a rain storm. The poem docent end there though Billy continues to talk about the butterfly in its self and how beautiful they are and how that might just be to distract from the idea that there wings may cause a typhoon, and I found that quite humerus and a very interesting interpretation on the colors of the wings and the butterfly effect. The imagery of this particular poem was also landed this poem in my favorites pile, the diction helps to paint a vivid seen with the butterflies and there illustrious wings with lines like "a brilliant mix of bright orange and vivid yellow with a soft dusting of light brown...". I find this specific poem the most explicit and intimate with detain that really helps to portray the view.
ReplyDeleteCollins’ writing is inspirational, in my opinion. His ability to turn something common and mundane into an otherworldly object with a mysterious appeal is astonishing. He also took events that never get a second thought and made them objects of focus. My favorite poems were “Vade Mecum” and “Nostalgia” from Questions About Angels and “The Flight of the Reader” from Picnic, Lightning.
ReplyDeleteThe short, straightforward nature of “Vade Mecum” is what initially caught me. It is so direct and forward about what is often seen as an uncomfortable or upsetting situation; the tone did not display any sadness or remorse. Also, the demand of having everything perfect seems outrageous, but also understandable. I would like to know if anyone in our class would react this way; I know that I would not.
“Nostalgia” was full of imagery, such as “you always wore brown, the color craze of the decade, and I was draped in one of those capes that were popular, the ones with unicorns and pomegranates in needlework,” and detail, such as “our collars were high and our hats were extremely soft.” At one point, I even began to calculate if Collins could have been alive during some of the time periods. Also, the cyclical nature of the poem was cause for awe. The ending, in which he begins to wonder about the future and future dances ties it back to the beginning, when he spoke about the Catapult, the Struggle, and the Daphne.
“The Flight of the Reader” was very thought-invoking for me, because as a reader, I never really thought about the author, or poet in this case. Reading about how the author sees “you perched on [his] shoulder” and that he hates “to think of that morning when [he] will wake up to find you gone,” changed my perspective. It makes the author much less of an ethereal idea and more tangible, more human. He characterizes himself as a child, “sailing paper airplanes across the room at you” and unable to “wait for the lunch bell.” He also denies a “crush” he claims to have the reader in a juvenile manner. Having this book end on that poem was very smart, in my opinion, as well because you are left pondering the author instead of quickly moving on to his next poem.
I enjoyed your analysis of Billy Collins’ work because I also liked the fact that he was able to make everyday things seem complex by making them feel, like you said, mysterious. Collins’ final poem “The Flight of the Reader” for me also produced a lot of further thought on the relationship between authors and readers. In the first stanza of this poem Collins’ really turned my reading of the poem to a more personal level. By comparing the experience of reading his poetry to the reader actually spending time with Collins, together enjoying “the same yellow and white flowers” and “all the sleepless nights” Collins drew me into the poem. The “crush” that you commented that Collins denies having on the reader I found to be a little sarcastic, in sort of a playful way that made me appreciate Collins writing. I agree with you that it was a smart choice for Collins to end the book on that note, he leaves the reader with a very different take on him than what they started with.
DeleteI thought your analysis of the poems was very well thought out and very well said. I particularly enjoyed your analysis of the poem “Nostalgia.” I really appreciate the attention to detail you show when you pull in quotes from the poem. I also very much enjoyed the line "I was draped in one of those capes that were popular, the ones with unicorns and pomegranates in needlework,” because of the abundance of specifics. I felt as if I could actually picture him, and I very much enjoyed that. I also found your analysis of the poem, “The Flight of the Reader,” very accurate. I agree that his mention of him missing us makes him seem more him, and less a distant being writing from another time or place. I thought it was really interesting to see into the author's mind like this. Because although we hear his voice in every poem in the book, it is different to hear him talk about his feelings towards us. It establishes a connection with us as readers. Because now it is no longer a one sided relationship. We find out that the author cares about us too! I though it added an interesting element to the collection and thought it was definitely very good.
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ReplyDeleteThe first poem I'd like to discuss is "Introduction to Poetry." I have actually read this before, in my eighth grade English class we wrote reflectionary poems on this piece. I find this interesting because it appears (at least to me) at odds with Collins' writing style. Collins poems usually require multiple readings for the audience to get the full meaning and his inspiration and purpose for writing the poem are often so difficult to interpret that his style borders on pretension. With this piece, however,he encourages us not to dig too deeply, but take the writings at face value. I believe this idea is one that many students agree with; do not attempt to breakdown every line of poetry (or "beat it with a hose"), but enjoy it for what it is. It reminds me of an image I saw on Facebook once that goes like this:
What I read: "The door is blue."
What my teacher says it means: "The door is actually a symbol for his depression and lack of will to continue."
What the author meant: "The door is freaking blue."
I agree that we often read too deeply into things that are not as complex as they seem thoug I will admit to,having fallen victim to overly complicated interpretations in my reading.
The second poem I found intriguing was "My Number." The first thing I liked was the personification of death. We often see death personified as a malevolent being in literature and religion. It is an interesting twist to add humanity to the inevitable, especially when death is not portrayed as evil, but as a being just trying to do his job. The idea of death as a man making arrangements to "tamper with air brakes" and "scatter cancer cells" is both humorous,and, in a way, comforting, in that death is not out to get you, but just a thing that happens. The final line actually reminded me of Harry Potter. In the seventh book, Hermione tells the story of the "Deathly Hallows" in which three men cheat death and, in return, are rewarded with magical items. Only one man is able to evade death and, at the end of the story when he is dying, he greets death like an old friend. Similarly, our narrator makes conversation with death by making small talk and asking about death's trip. This, along with his statement of trying to talk his way out of dying, brings me back to the idea of giving humanity to death and taking away its severity. Collins can joke with death, try to evade him through conversation rather than fear his demise. In Mexican culture, death is celebrated so when it comes it isn't as frightening. I believe thinking of death as a person doing what he has to do makes it less of a terrifying unknown. Through tone, personification, and irony, Collins makes death a benevolent companion rather than a dreaded end.
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ReplyDeleteFinally I would like to speak about "The History Teacher." This poem is very distinctive from his other works in that, instead of being self-reflective or dealing with an aspect of Collins' life or immediate surroundings, the piece deals with the more existential topic of man's tendency to distort history to paint his or herself in a brighter light. I enjoy the euphemisms used like turning the Ice Age into the "Chilly Age" and Stone Age into "Gravel Age." They play with the idea (taking it to an extreme) of distorting history to make it more appealing. The history teacher fails to mention the extermination of Jewish and Muslim people living in Spain, and later that of Native Americans. The Enola Gay and its "little atom" are the only mention of the millions killed at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This brings us to the major theme of the poem, by ignoring history, we are doomed to repeat it. At recess the children torment the weak and smart, repeating the cycle of domination by commonplace ideas of strength and superiority between races. These same ideas brought about all the wars, tragedies, and massacres discussed earlier in the poem. History repeats itself, but the students have no idea because they weren't exposed to the repercussions of similar actions in the past. Finally, the teacher walks home in this seemingly pure world of flowers and fences, ignorant to what his neglect of truth has caused for his students while determining how he might make history less severe and friendlier so as not to disturb the children. I would like to ask the class, "What do you think?" Should we focus on mankind's triumphs in history and ignore his faults and failure, or should we emphasize his mistakes and errors in judgment in order to prevent them from being repeated?
Although the poem, “Introduction to Poetry” didn’t appeal to me at first, Devin’s interpretation and analysis caused me to eagerly reevaluate its message. The title is very ironic; an introduction is an invitation to explore a new idea, whereas in Collins’ poem he uses strong discouragement against deep interpretation. I found Devin’s example about the door being blue very relatable when it comes to anatomizing poems and how we, as students, love to “tie the poem to a chair with a rope and torture a confession out of it.” I agree with Collins when he asks us to enjoy a poem for its entertainment, rather than for its deeper meaning that we find by dissecting its stanzas.
Delete“The History Teacher” was another one of my favorites because it was one of the more optimistic pieces within Collins’ collection. Collins’ use of euphemisms was both humorous and entertaining. However, it also distorted history and made the Ice Age and the battles fought in medieval England seem understated. I do agree with Devin’s belief that disregarding our past mistakes can lead to even more disastrous effects in the future; we should rectify our mistakes and inform the public of the unabridged version. However, we shouldn’t criticize every microscopic mishap and denounce others’ actions. The world is not perfect and we must learn from our errors to reveal the virtue within the morality of humanity.
I also enjoyed the poem "The History Teacher" for similar reasons like the fun quirky word play that is artfully speckled all throughout the poem giving it special feel that gives a sort of humorous aspect to it. Thats a style that i find interesting and thought filled due to the inherent connections between the actual event and the newly named events. This poem also made me think about how impact teachers or more in particular people with knowledge can be. In this instance the teacher can re wright history for his students and for the most part cant be challenged by his students due to them not knowing the general knowledge that hes teaching. This poem partially reinforces my own belief that all people should personally seek knowledge on a broad scale using the wealth of knowledge at our fingertips, the internet. One quote that could be linked to this poem is the quote "Knowledge is power and power is knowledge." this reflect the poem because the history teach in this case can change the course of history in his students eyes as he sees fit due to him being the one who has any real authority and knowledge on any of the topics he teaches.
DeleteBilly Collins, in Sailing Alone Around the Room, creates an interesting image on something so simple in his poem, Book. For example, “he can hear the library humming (personification) in the night, and a choir of authors murmuring inside their books.” This part, in the very beginning of the poem appealed to me the most because Collins brought the scene of a library to life, like “a gigantic chord of language.” In the next Stanza, he creates the act of reading to symbolize “a man touring a house of endless, paneled rooms as he moves from paragraph to paragraph.” Also an example of a metaphor because he creates an action into an image of something unrelated.
ReplyDeleteIn the next poem, Picnic Lighting, appealed to me because Collins creates a humorous tone in the beginning with giving ridiculous examples of freak accidents like “being struck by a meteor” or by “a single engine plane while reading in a chair at home.” He quickly transitions the tone abruptly to something darker while describing death (“a tiny dark ship is unmoored”) and explaining the message that at any moment death is upon us and “the instant hand of Death, always ready to burst forth.” Collin uses diction (burst) to exaggerate and also capitalizes Death.
In the last poem that caught my attention compared to the others was The Death of the Hat. The imagery Collins uses in the beginning “brims and bands” and “broad rivers flowing with hats” and “the ballpark swelled with thousands of straw hats.” The hat almost symbolizes self-respect and a part of everyday life that we’ve all become so used to seeing. Collins leaves the readers questioning why society dropped the hat and stating that “today we go bare headed, into the winter streets.” Collins creates the theme that society has lost a solid shared belief but found a sense of individualism. This is not seen as something negative based off the tone of poem because towards the end he talks about his father who “wears a hat of earth”.
Chelsea Nichols
DeleteIn his poem Books, Collins discusses hearing the choir of the books humming throughout the library which is good use of personification which I picked up on also. Collins starts off each stanza saying something he hears or sees, going more into detail and depth. I also saw the metaphor about him creating the image of something that does not relate when the man panels the paragraphs. When I read Picnic, Lighting, I felt a dark tone when Collins discusses what he knows and thinks of when it comes to death and weird ways of dying. His diction with the "tiny dark ship is unmoored" I felt really also meant death could be unexpected. His diction of "the click of the sundial" also really has an exaggerated affect on how time is ticking closer to death. While reading The Death of the Hat, I felt like it was society's way of people fitting in at some kind of imaginary time Collins thought of. It seemed that everyone wore a hat and when that theme died off, yourself as an individual did too. It is taken in a positive view when his father at the end is said to "wears a hat of earth" maybe creating an image for the reader to see now that he is done working and out of peoples view he is now not like everyone else.
The poems “Earthling,” “Forgetfulness,” and “The History Teacher” were the most interesting because together they show us step by step why our humanity prevents us from realizing the full truth. As humans we strive to fit the norm, and through this desire our methods sometimes become a summarized version of the full story. People who are trying to achieve the average human weight are forgetting to give as much to others as they have given to themselves. Through self-obsession they forget the things that really matter like “the address of an uncle.” All selfishness does is quicken the speed in which we forget. After we forget, that is when the truth starts to change. Through the combination of worrying what others think of us and forgetfulness, history teachers and historians begin to alter the past. After that history just turns into a never ending game of telephone, passed down from generation to generation.
ReplyDeleteIn the poem “Earthling,” Collins views our planet from the perspective of a being that is not originally from Earth. He pretends to be a creature that is studying humans and thinking about how they would act on other planets. He acts like he has actually been to those planets and is grateful to be on Earth and not anywhere else. All he needs is a comfortable pull of gravity and a decent distance from the sun. He is not self-conscious about his weight because compared to being five tons on Pluto or only an ounce on Mercury, Earth isn’t so bad.
Later on in the book Collins uses nostalgic tone and diction in his poem “Forgetfulness.” He starts by explaining how a book that you read can completely disappear from your mind, with all the lessons and genius that came with it. Books leave us the same way that people do. Try and remember the voice of a person you loved, but haven’t seen in 3 years. No matter how badly you wish you could remember it, you cannot. In a sad way, everything that makes you into the person you are is slipping away, and it effects everyone that you meet in your everyday life.
Shortly after the latter poem, Collins displays his work known as “The History Teacher.” This poem is the icing on the cake in the corruption of truth. Everything has led to this final act of lying to the next generation. As the teacher worries what his students think of him, he lies in order to protect their innocence. He euphemizes major events such as the Stone Age and The War of Roses. This may not seem so bad in the short term, but in the long term this undermines the legitimacy of the history we know. As it changes more and more, no one will know the real truth and history will just become legend. Through the good intentions of the History Teacher the truth has been compromised.
Your perspective on Collins’ poem “Earthling” was really insightful. You made me see the poem in a whole new light. When I first read it, I didn’t find anything special about it. I took it as a poem talking about the comforts of home, but nothing extraordinary. Your post really made me think about what we do and don’t take for granted. I agree with your view that “Earth isn’t so bad.” So many people now-a-days talk of trying to find something new, or exploring the great beyond, that many forget the amazing places we have here. If more people were reminded of how good we have it, the Earth would be a much better place. I also really like your take on “The History Teacher” who through good intentions compromises the truth. Your last line was very powerful, and also served as a warning. Many reporters, journalists, politicians, and other powerful people today try very hard to compromise the truth, and the only defense against it is the ability to see through their lies. I was impressed when you connected all three poems you wrote about under one subject, humanity being so obsessed with itself that ultimately it forgets its past.
DeleteThe three poems from Sailing Around the Room: New and Selected Poems by Billy Collins that most spoke to me were, “Vade Mecum,” “Piano Lessons,” and “Madmen.” His use of figurative language, detail, syntax, imagery, and more captured my attention and engulfed me in his work. The poem, “Vade Mecum,” was one of my favorites because of the title. The definition of a vade mecum is a handbook or guide that is kept constantly at hand for consultation. Without this title, the true meaning of the poem couldn’t be understood. Collins’ use of diction is simple yet cutting, portraying the preciseness of the human relationship and how a person can simply take a piece of another and not even think twice. The fact that it is one sentence is also interesting, and it appears to help the point that he had a relationship with someone he couldn’t get over, and that said person, “cut (him) out of (his) life,” and took a slice of his soul. Collins’ poem, “Piano Lessons,” first captured my interest because of the numbered stanzas and the vivid imagery. The poem progresses beautifully, showing how Collins’ relationship with the piano grew as he did. His personification of the scales in stanza 3 gives the reader a clear image of the, “mother of the chords.” He says that she is, “pacing the bedroom floor waiting for her children to come home.” This image shows the reader how repetitive and tedious the scales can be, yet they hold the household, or the song, together. Collins’ also personifies the piano, calling it a, “curious beast with its enormous moonlit smile.” This image concocts the author’s feelings of awe and admiration of this grand “animal.” It reminded me of the Cheshire Cat from Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, giving me an eerie, yet awe stricken feeling. My final poem of choice, “Madmen,” appealed to me because of his detail and and point of view. The poem is told like a story in second person and when Collins’ writes, “Take the night I mentioned to you I wanted to write about the madmen….” This point of view pulls the reader directly into the poem, as if Collins’ is telling you a story about a time you had talked, reminding you of your ideas and how you felt in the duration of the conversation. We are with Collins as he, “watched (his) poem fly down to the front of the bar and hover there until the next customer walked in - then (he) watched it fly out the door into the night.” He uses detail to portray the loss we feel when we lose ideas or poems and they stay unwritten, floating in the minds of the creators, never to be caught again.
ReplyDeleteAll of Claire’s analysis of Collins work I believe are accurate and perfectly describe the poems meaning and helps the reader to better understand them. I reread “Vade Mecum” after Claire explained what vade mecum meant and after knowing the definition the poem became one of my favorites. Like Claire said his use of diction is so simple but it gets the point across about humans and their actions towards others. I also loved the poem “Piano Lessons” because of the way the piano is taught to him in ways he can understand. The keys are described as “different rooms” and how he has to walk through them without hitting the furniture. Next the scales are described as shapes and he must learn to hold each one, and finally how the scale is the, “mother of the chords”. Again after I read claire analysis of “Madmen” I went back to reread it and found it to be as claire said a, “conversation” rather then just a poem. I saw it more as how writers and artists can have ideas that are flowing throughout their head. When they go to write it it seems to flee from their minds and they’re left wondering what it could have been.
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ReplyDeleteBilly Collins has a knack for taking the simple and overlooked tasks of our everyday lives, and with his writing, express them as some of the greatest, insignificant acts we will ever accomplish. “Sailing Alone Around the Room”, being a selected compilation of his works, was a tedious read for me. Some of the poems, however interesting, left me feeling like he dragged on what could have been a great piece, by adding a jumble of words when they could have been said more short and simple. Poems which fill only a meager section of the page, seem to drag on and on with his figurative language and complex analogies and have your mind churning to find some deeper meaning, when in reality, what he wrote is exactly what he means. For that reason, “Introduction to Poetry” struck me as brilliant. This particular piece focuses on the readers of poetry; reading, analyzing and questioning the print on the page and the life of the writer for the meaning of the poem, until the enjoyment is gone and the art of the poem itself has been destroyed from “tying the poem to a chair with rope and touring a confession out of it”. In many ways, this is what our teachers expect from us - to “take a poem and hold it up to the light” like you would an old “color strip”, who's dark sleek surface conceals its true self, until its small filmy squares are violated with rays of white light. Once you find out what the pictures are, the mystery is gone and you forget about that color strip you worked so hard to see. Poems are like this, too. We work so hard to find out its “true meaning”, and in the process of doing so, the simple joy of reading something beautifully written is surpassed and forgotten. Collins, like many writers, wants you to simply “water-ski across the surface of a poem”, grasping its general meaning and relishing in the fact that its hidden meaning is not one you’re meant to learn by hard work and agony, but by rereading it because you liked it and will someday come to understand it through realization. Another piece by Collins I took interest in is “Consolation”, it being about finding happiness and peace at home. You may not be “touring Italy”, or looking at “crumbling frescoes”, but there are so many things to be said for the quiet and familiar. You know where every stop sign is and what every billboard says. The deli in town knows you by your first name, what your order is right when you walk in the door, and your phone will be fully charged from all the pictures you didn't have to take of The Coliseum or the Eiffel Tower. Instead of regretting all the trips you didn't or haven’t taken, be thankful instead for the simple pleasures home has to offer you everyday you spend in it. Collins perfectly expresses what’s so great about not traveling, by explaining why staying home is so much more fulfilling. He seems perfectly content with his life and doesn't need to see and do everything the world has to offer; being able to read the newspaper at the coffee shop is enough for him.
Part 1 Cont.
ReplyDeleteLastly, Collin’s poem, “Victoria’s Secret” resonates well with the reader’s own experiences of flipping through their magazine issues. This poem satirizes Victoria’s Secret for their model’s poses and left me laughing at the end, recalling the countless magazines I’ve looked at and the similar photos that have been in them. Collins mocks today’s society for the “expression we have come to associate with photographic beauty” - the pouty face. He jokes “her ice cream has tumbled out of its cone” or she has been casually “waiting all day for a new sofa to be delivered” in slinky lingerie only available in 14 different colors for your customer convenience. This poem reinforces my previous statement of how Collins has a brilliant form, enabling him to make something as simple and unnoticed as flipping through a magazine seem like an incredible and hilarious act. Poetry is created for the purpose of telling a story the reader and author can enjoy together. Collins recognizes the times when people are content and most at peace, are when they’re doing the simple things in their everyday lives they don’t even notice. He chooses to write about these small moments so he can connect to his readers in a way he knows they will enjoy.
Allie Balsamo
ReplyDeleteThe first poem that I found interesting in Sailing Alone Around the Room written by Billy Collins was “Insomnia.” I like that in this poem Collins starts with the idea of counting sheep, which he easily gets bored with and thinks about different creatures such as wildebeests, snails and camels. After that he says he adds “up all the zoos and aquariums country by country.” This shows the reader that Collins has more of an imagination and how one of his thoughts turns into a something bigger. His thoughts form this snowball effect. Then Collins vividly describes a nightmare using specific and descriptive diction for example, when he says things like “rocking waves,” “craning over,” and “colorful species.” This poem shows the reader through Collins’ dreams and thoughts how creative he is.
The second poem that I found interesting was “The History Teacher.” I found this poem interesting because the message behind the poem is that the teacher is trying to protect his students from the ugly in the world. Instead of telling his students the truth about tragic events in history he makes them sound like no big deal. For example, instead of describing the cruelty of the Spanish Inquisition he tells them it was “nothing more than an outbreak of questions.” The teacher felt the students didn’t need to know about how thousands of people were killed because of their religion. As the teacher would walk home he would pass the “flower beds and white picket fences,” and think about his students and if they believed him. I think Collins included the detail of the “flower beds and white picket fences” to show the perfect world the students lived in and how the teacher didn’t want the truth to change their view of the world.
The third poem that I found interesting was Sonnet. I found the message of this poem interesting. Throughout the poem Collins is planning out the sonnet’s fourteen lines. And just like the sonnet all of life is planned out and before you know it the fourteen lines is over. I think Collins was trying to convey the message life goes by quickly, especially when you plan out every detail of it. You can’t spend your life planning and you can’t spend all fourteen lines of a sonnet planning out the next line.
Matthew Tobin
DeleteAfter reading through the majority of other students' personal responses, the poem Sonnet was the only one that another student and I both chose. When I now reflect on the poem, my viewpoint has slightly changed. When first reading this poem, my interpretation was that the poem was one of love, more so of the struggle of love. I believed that Collins was determined to mend the issues of his love life, resulting in his metaphorical “return to bed.” Now reflecting on the poem, my viewpoint has slightly changed. When drafting my personal responses, I was focusing too hard on word selection, but after reading Allie’s response, I now see a message similar to hers that originally went undetected. The poems short length is in correspondence to the short feeling of life’s length; but rather than life’s accelerant being planning out every detail of life, I believe Collins thought it was love. His counting down the first two lines leading right to his launch of “a little ship on love’s storm-tossed seas” is starting the poem, and occupying his day, as he searches for the love and the calm waters he desires.
The three poems most appealing to me are Consolation, Lines Lost Among Trees, and Snow Day, each written by Billy Collins and featured in his book, Sailing Alone Around the Room.
ReplyDeleteIn Consolation, Collins writes about his preference of remaining home rather than exploring a new land. He uses Italy to exemplify the unknown in the first line of the poem, and speaks of "feeding scenery" into a "hungry, one-eyed camera". A big concern of this generation is that things are being recorded for future remembrance but are not being appreciated enough in the present. People look through there cameras more than with their own eyes. He expresses the familiarity of home to be "agreeable" and easy. There, one has no need for stress and comfort comes naturally. I believe this to be pertinent to my life as I find the most sanctuary in my own home and the towns whose streets I've travelled upon hundreds, thousands of times. Visiting a new locale is always exciting, yet a vast majority of the time, I desire the ease of home.
The next poem, Lines Lost Among Trees, sings true for everyone. Collins mourns in this poem for the loss of possibly brilliant thoughts and ideas that went unrecorded. It's natural for anyone to become distracted, and to do so is to lose hold of images that should rather be retained. He compares these fleeting ideas of the mind to coins being dropped and falling through a "grate of memory". He had never meant to "drop", or forget, the thoughts, or "coins", but before he knew it they were spilled from his "hands" and lost in the maze of his mind forever. Humans are normally forgetful. Take dreams, for instance; they are clear, vivid, perhaps even lucid, while we sleep, yet the moment we wake up, we are merely left with a feeling. Very rarely do we manage to record the contents of such brain activity, and we are left confused and with a mild feeling of emptiness. Then one begins to question how many bubbles of thought the human race has lost on whims.
The final poem is called Snow Day, relatable to anyone who has experienced the frigid weather brought upon by heavy snow. Among children and even teenagers, snow days are regarded as surprise Christmas presents. They occur around the same time and are a source of fun for all not yet graduated from high school. In Snow Day, Collins refers to the snow as a "white flag" that buries everything. The landscape obtains a new blanket-like layer of pure white that makes it appear as if one has woken up in a new world, some kind of alternate dimension of serenity. After the initial appreciation, Collins begins to list the name of each school closing, which everyone who once was a child will remember was a moment filled with brimming glee and anticipation. Upon learning that school is closed for the day, many kids do not hesitate to throw on their thick snow pants and "bright miniature jackets". That feeling of excitement the moment of rejoice I, nor anyone else, will ever forget, and this poem simply immortalizes it.
In the poem Lines Lost Among Trees, Collins reminds us all of times where great ideas have been forgotten and lost forever. For example, as Liv points out, dreams are immediately forgotten the moment we awake. We promise ourselves to hold on and remember but then become so preoccupied with other tasks that the words and ideas leave us.
DeleteIn the poem Consolation Collins points out that the already familiar things in life are sometimes more enjoyable than the unfamiliar ones. I agree with Liv’s idea in that our generation is so consumed with recording life that we forget to just enjoy it. Collins uses a trip to Italy to signify how much we miss out on with language barriers, cameras in front of our faces, or heads hidden behind maps.
Finally, in the poem Snow Day, Collins reminisces on the feelings of exhilaration and joy we’ve all once experienced after hearing that school is cancelled for the day. Collins then begins listing the names of schools as they close for the day, insuring the feelings of anticipation in everyone. After hearing the great news, children run outside “climbing and sliding” in the snow, enjoying their day of freedom from sitting behind desks all day. In life, there a few moments of true joy that we all experience, snow days being one of them. Liv and I can both agree that no one could forget the excitement of a snow day, as this poem so thoroughly describes.
Of all of Billy Collins’ poems in the book Sailing Alone Around the Room, the three that appealed to me most were Insomnia, My Number, and To a Stranger Born in Some Distant Country Hundreds of Years From Now. The first poem Insomnia appealed to me mostly because of how Collins’ incorporated details of the Bible story Noah’s Ark to convey his message in the piece. By using this story in this poem, Collins’ was able to add messages of both elation and despair. At first, Collins’ is “in a nightmare about drowning in the Flood”, but by the end of the piece, Collin’s can find satisfaction as he “pictures all the fish in creation leaping a fence in a field of water, one colorful species at a time.” The next poem that appealed to was My Number because of its sinister tone. The way in which Collins’ speaks of death as a person gives the reader a frankly indescribable feeling. Collins repeated use of questions also leaves the reader with his or her own questions, continuously thinking of the whereabouts of death, forever wondering when their number is to be called. Collins’ diction in the piece could be seen in many different ways, either in correlation with the tone of the poem, as sinister and eerie, or in a way of wondering. One could see Collins’ use of transition words connected to harsh words such as cancer, death and others as his way of telling that there is uncertainty with all that occurs in the world. The third poem of Collins’ that appealed to me was, To a Stranger Born in Some Distant Country Hundreds of Years From Now. This piece appealed to me because of the interesting way in which it was written and the interesting topics Collins chooses to discuss with the person of the future he is writing the poem for. The way in which Collins’ structures this piece, adding details from the beginning into the end gives another element of storytelling into the poem. Collins’ also broadens his audience when saying, “Whatever the shape of your house, however you scoot from place to place, no matter how strange and colorless the clothes you may wear.” All of these poems written by Collins’ were immensely appealing in their own particular way. However Collins’ uses of compelling diction and tone were especially enticing.
ReplyDeleteI agree that Collins' biblical tie in to Noah's Ark in "Insomnia" provided a more interesting element than some of his other poems. Your description of his feelings of both elation and despair and spot on and one could say that his rising and falling on the rocking waves depicted this feeling properly. It seems to me that one of Collins' main subjects for writing is that of death. Where it will find him, how, when. A reader could say that he has a genuine interest or even better a genuine fear of what is to come later. I think you and I both noticed that when reading "My Number". Maybe focusing on the detail of the wet dog and how it is shunned by all except Colllins himself is something you should focus more on when reading the poem "To a Stranger Born in Some Distant Country Hundreds of Years From Now". He's clearly talking about the way some people can really treat each other and how cruel the world can be and he believes that hundreds of years from now that idea or view won't change.
DeleteCollins was appointed poet laureate for the United States from 2001-2003. His job given to him by the United States government was to compose and promote poetry. In his writings compiled in Sailing Alone Around the Room, one can see why Collins received such an honor. “Morning” was interesting to me was because I’m a morning person and Collins’ view on the morning is similar to mine – minus the espresso. The early morning when the sun just comes up and the world slowly starts to wake up just like you did, “throwing off the light covers”. Collins love for the morning resonates with me and I agree with his opinion. His opinion on the “the swale of the afternoon” and the “sudden dip into evening” and his personification of the “night with his notorious perfumes, his many pointed stars”. “The Man in the Moon”: a poem of personification. Collins speaks of the moon with its own human attributes and characteristics. He speaks of the fear he felt as a child when looking into the sky to see the moon’s “wide adult face, enormous, stern, aloft.” Collins then looks again at the moon when he’s older and sees him as a “young man who has fallen in love with the dark earth” and speaks of the expression the moon has “as if he had just broken into song”. I enjoyed the nostalgia Collins conveys with the moon showing his familiar face and the playfulness of giving the moon a human personality. “The History Teacher” reminded me heavily of The Catcher in the Rye, because of its theme of protecting children from losing their innocence. Collins writes of a teacher that plays on the names of historical events. The Ice Age becomes the Chilly Age, a time when everyone had to wear sweaters; The War of Roses took place in a garden; The Spanish Inquisition is simply a series of questions regarding Spain and finally the Boer War was fought by telling the enemy long senseless stories with the intention of making them fall asleep. Collins’ history teacher is trying to protect his young students from the reality of war and death in the world similar to how Holden was trying to protect Phoebe from growing up and realizing how cruel people and life can really be.
ReplyDeleteYour comprehension and interpretation of Billy Collin’s “Morning” was extremely interesting. I would also have to agree with you, along with Collin’s with his opinions of “the swale of the afternoon” and the “sudden dip into evening” because I also feel that as the day goes on, the arrival of afternoon becomes more depressing as well as with the swift arrival of nightfall, any given day can completely change throwing off the mood of many people. I also found the way Collin’s expressed his own aging through his view of the moon to be very intriguing. The ways he used personification to describe the moon and its changing features were powerful and really made one stop to think about their own mortality. The way in which Collin’s portrayed the transition from a “wide adult face, enormous, stern, aloft” to a “young man who has fallen in love with the dark earth” was very compelling. When reading your analysis of “The History Teacher”, I at first didn’t agree with your connection to Catcher in the Rye but a second look back at the piece with this knowledge in mind, I eventually agreed. The way the teacher changes the facts of history in order to keep the children from being exposed to such harsh things, definitely has the theme of protecting a child’s innocence.
DeleteIn the book "Sailing Alone Around the Room," by Billy Collins, the poems that appealed to me most were "Introduction to Poetry," "forgetfulness," and "Victoria's Secret."
ReplyDeleteThe reason I chose "Introduction to Poetry" is because I can relate to thoroughly analyzing pieces of literature. Personally, I agree with the idea of feeling out a poem to find its meaning instead of dissecting it and looking at the literary techniques used. I feel as though it's important to look at the poem as a whole instead of looking at the pieces. Collins' use of contrasting imagery helps get this message across. In the beginning Collins explains how a poem should be read and compares it to "water-ski[ing] across the surface.." This imagery gives the impression of smooth a smooth, and relaxed approach. Later in the poem Collins goes on to explain how people tend to read poems and compares it to " [tying] the poem to a chair with rope and [torturing] a confession out of it." This gives the impression of a rough and brutal approach, which can be seen as the antithesis of the earlier description.
The reason I chose "Forgetfulness" is because Collins' description of forgetting things is spot-on. Throughout the poem Collins uses tons of personification to describe what happens to forgotten memories. One of my favorite examples is the second stanza, where Collins writes "the memories... retire...to a little fishing village where there are no phones." This perfectly describes how memories seem to vanish with no trace, and how you can never seem to recall them no matter how hard you try. The most interesting part of the poem is the final stanza. In the final stanza Collins explains that forgetting things is a part of life, and feeling loss is natural.
The reason i chose "Victoria's Secret" is because of Collins' interpretation of the girls in the magazine he is looking at. As Collins turns the pages of the magazine he views the images of the girls in lingerie, and predicts what each one might be thinking and doing. My favorite part of the poem is when Collins explores the possibilities of why one of the girls is pouting. Instead of just assuming that the girl was told to pout, Collins questions whether "her ice cream tumbled" or "perhaps she has been waiting all day for a new sofa to be delivered." Collins' use of detail throughout the poem is also quite notable. Collins thoroughly describes the "organza-trimmed whisperweight camisole with keyhole closure and a point d'esprit mesh back" and the "stretch panne velvet bodysuit with a low sweetheart neckline featuring molded cups and adjustable straps." Not only does this indicate how closely Collins was paying attention to the magazine, but it also helps the reader understand what the author is looking at, just in case the reader didn't know what Victoria's Secret was.
In Billy Collin’s poetry book “Sailing Alone Around the Room”, the three poems that appeal to me most are Forgetfulness, The Dead, and Sonnet. The poem Forgetfulness is about the memories in our minds fading away over time, everything we used to know ended up “slipping away” from us. The poem’s tone is thoughtful but in a negative way. The author ponders where the memories go and trying to remember what he has forgotten. The tone is negative in ways like when the author says, “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.” The author is saying that the memories you had are nowhere to be found and will forever be forgotten, you can’t even find them deep in your body. The author uses personification when he says, “watched the quadratic equation pack its bag”. This is personification because the quadratic equation is an inanimate object cannot pack its bag. The author also uses an analogy in his writing when he compares a memory struggling to be recollected in ones mind to “a little fishing village where there are no phones”. This means that the memories can’t communicate with the brain because there are no phones, no way of contacting it. The second poem, The Dead, is sort of an acceptance of death. There is no denying that everyone dies, but the tone is very calm with phrases like the boats rowing “slowly through eternity” and the author being “drugged perhaps by the hum of a warm afternoon”. Personification is used in “the dead are always looking down on us, they say, while we are putting on our shoes or making a sandwich”. The dead used to be alive but are not anymore, making them inanimate, and therefore them looking down on us would be personification. The last line, “and wait, like parents, for us to close our eyes” comes off as sort of sad yet touching because it seems like the dead are waiting for us to die as well, so we can reconnect in heaven. The third poem, Sonnet, is about Billy Collins wanting to change the way a sonnet is made and also he sort of praises the sonnets written in the past. Billy starts off the poem with an introduction on what a sonnet incorporates. First, how many lines a typical sonnet has. "All we need is fourteen lines, well, thirteen now, and after this next one just a dozen”. Then he talks about how the typical theme of a sonnet is love. The tone of the poem is positive and a comparison is used when Billy compares the next ten lines of a sonnet with “rows of beans”. The author states “how easily it goes unless you get Elizabethan”. This is referring to how easy it is to write a sonnet unless if you follow the rules. The last line “blow out the lights, and come at last to bed” seems like the author is praising the old sonnets. It seems to me like he wants the old sonnets to go to bed while new ones are formed, but I’m not sure. Do you guys think that Billy Collins wants the old form of sonnets to stay or new ones to evolve?
ReplyDeleteWhile reading Reid's blog post, I found a number of details I did not catch upon first glance. Out of his three interpretations, I found Forgetting to be my favorite. I agree with almost all of his points sans his comment about the tone. Collins use of personification effectively conveys his message of memories fading away. The phrase "watching a quadratic equation pack its bag" was the most powerful in my opinion. I thought as it captured the feeling most high school students feel when they come back to school after the summer, finding themselves forgetting minuscule equations. It truly does seem as if the memory has packed up his bag. This phrase I found to be funny as well as his other personifications. His humor, I believe, takes a comical spin on the fading of memories. I do agree with Reid in the fact that they are thoughtful comments, but I would not consider his tone negative. One aspect of Reid's interpretation I found interesting was the connection between " 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" and the lack of communication between the memories and the brain as they fade away . Although I did not choose this poem in my personal interpretations, I found this particular poem filled with the quirky humor in all of Collin's other poems and I think Reid did a great job breaking the poem down.
DeleteNora Murphy
ReplyDelete7/20/15
AP Literature and Composition
The book, Sailing Around The Room by Billy Collins, was filled with quirky, spunky, and creative yet simple poems. I thought his poems focused on many things that a person would not pay attention to on a day to day basis and the insight and focus he brings is quite admirable. The poems I enjoyed reading the most were Insomnia, The Man in the Moon, and Vade Mecum. The first poem I will be discussing is Insomnia. I enjoyed this poem because I resonated with the idea of counting sheep at night to fall asleep. He begins the poem by explaining that after he counts sheep he “enumerates the wildebeests, snails, and skylarks” which hints that he is a serious insomniac. Then he moves to the serious allusion to the story of Noah’s Ark. Collins is dreaming after only falling asleep in the early dawn and discovers himself in drowning in the Flood. His description of his drowning involves the utilization of imagery to depict the “rise and fall of the rocking waves” .The second poem I will be discussing is The Man in the Moon. This poem by Collins starts off with his interpretation of the “face in the moon” as a child. He uses describing diction to create a negative tone by using words like “stern” and “coldness”. By using this diction we can determine that he was intimidated and maybe disturbed by the man in the moon when he was young. He then shifts to his current interpretation of the face in the moon. This description is much different, perhaps the opposite of his original. Collins uses a simile to compare the face of the moon to “a young man who has fallen in love with the dark earth” as well as comparing the face of the moon to a man who has “just broken in to song.” These comparisons effectively describe how the author has changed his opinion on the face in the moon. At the end of the poem, you almost sense that Collins has formed a positive opinion and the face is now welcoming towards Collins. This poem was a personal favorite, as it reminded me of my childhood looking up at the “man in the moon” at night. To conclude, the final poem I will be discussing is Vade Mecum. Although this poem is terse, I feel it carries immense emotion and passion. Its mysterious nature draws you in, provoking you to ask questions like who is the person “cutting” and “pasting”? Is it a killer or a lover? The action diction used in this poem is very blunt and powerful. The words “sharp” and “cut” create the feeling of pain between the cutter and Collins and the phrase “cut me out of my life” fosters the thought of death. Despite the fact that these forceful phrases make up only 4 lines, you can comprehend the compelling tone of the author’s message.
"Insomnia" was an awesome poem by Billy Collins, even though I didn’t choose it for my analysis, I still looked into the poem when looking for ones to write about. For “Insomnia”, I agree with Nora when she said that when Billy Collins wrote after he counts sheep he, “enumerates the wildebeests, snails, and skylarks” that this means it takes him such a long time to fall asleep he has to envision other things. As Nora said he is a “serious insomniac”. Next, Billy Collins goes into Noah’s ark. It isn’t until after all of the animals in the world “wink out of sight" that he can finally rest his eyes and sleep for the night. Collins uses an extreme amount of detail in “Insomnia”. One thing I noticed about the poem that Nora didn’t mention is how after “the only boat on earth” disappeared, you would think that the author would get some sleep, but he doesn’t. After they are gone, he pictures all the fish in creation leaping a fence in a field of water. Even after all of the animals are gone, he is still so kept from rest that all of the fish in the world come into his mind, making sleep very unlikely for that night.
DeleteCaity DeCara
ReplyDelete(This was submitted on July 29th originally)
The three poems by Billy Collins that were most interesting were titled “Winter Syntax,” “Forgetfulness,” and “Picnic, Lightning.” In “Winter Syntax,” Collins characterizes the complications of producing quality literature by comparing it to a “lone traveler.” Collins begins his first stanza by analogizing the “lone traveler” with a beginning sentence by using a simile to describe the arduous task. The imagery used to describe the traveler’s treacherous trek, such as “tilting into the wind, one arm shielding his face,” helps establish Collins’ tone of hardship, which is similar to an author’s first sentence. To “lift a gun from the glove compartment and toss it out the window into the desert heat” represents the struggle a writer experiences when he cannot be productive. The “desert heat” symbolizes the exasperation behind writer’s block. The oxymoron of “cool moments blazing with silence” represents the frustration behind the writing process. The “full moon makes sense” because it is a complete sentence, whereas the ironic statement of the “bicycle leaning against a drugstore” reveals the potential peculiarities of literature. The use of metaphors like “every lake is a vowel,” helps compare the physical attributes of the winter months to parts of speech. The most significant and intriguing part is when “a smile will appear in a beard of icicles, and the man will express a complete thought.” After the lone traveler has endured such a painful endeavor, he has become victorious and has finished his work of art. In “Forgetfulness,” Collins’ straightforward tone allowed me to immediately become captured into his heartfelt tale of memory loss. The repetition of “never” convinced me that a lapse of memory can inevitably lead to complete absentmindedness. Collins use of personification with the memories that retire “to a little fishing village where there are no phones” helped me analogize a desolate area with that of forgetfulness. The cliché of “the nine Muses” and the use of personification with watching “the quadratic equation pack its bag” help resemble the small details that escape one’s memory that were once there. The idiom of the information once being on the “tip of tongue” and his hyperbolic phrase about his memory “not even lurking in some obscure center of spleen” represent the blankness in his power to recall. The last stanza convinced me that not only will I forget specific details about events, however, I will also forget sentimental aspects of my life. The theme of “Forgetfulness” expresses how losing one’s memory is inevitable. In “Picnic, Lightning,” Collins begins with a carefree tone when explaining the abnormal circumstances that cause deaths, such as getting “struck by a meteor.” However, in the following stanza his attitude changes to a vulnerable tone. He describes the common, uncontrollable occurrences that can take lives, such as a heart attack. Collins ends with a curious tone while recollecting the unpredictability of life. The use of personification with “the instant hand of death” displays Collins’ paranoia. The cheerful diction and personification used with “the small plants singing with lifted faces” support the theme that there is a new opportunity everyday. The “click of the sundial” shows that life is short and one mustn’t waste time worrying abut death. These three poems are meaningful to me because they represent the sentimental topics, such as, writing a story, losing one’s memory, and the loss of life, that can be very difficult to discuss. I question why Collins decided to reflect on these frightening issues and what happened in his life that caused him to focus on such unsettling matters.
Both Caity and I were intrigued by Collins’ poem “Forgetfulness”. Caity made a very insightful point when she explained that memory loss is inevitable and that small details that we once knew will always escape our minds. This point of view emphasizes how Collins is able to take a general topic, in this case memory loss, and make it unique. I agree with Caity’s analysis of how Collins uses figurative language. His use of personification helps to create a picture in the reader’s mind of a deserted area deprived of our memories. The use of personification throughout the poem also helps to characterize the small details that are constantly being forgotten, for example the quadratic equation. Caity also brought up a point in the poem that I didn’t notice, however now it makes perfect sense. The cliché “on the tip of your tongue” is used to make the poem more relatable. This line reminds the reader of what it feels like to forget something, or in Caity’s words, “blankness in his power to recall”. Overall, I think Caity made some very insightful points about Collins’s poem “Forgetfulness” that I hadn’t thought about.
DeleteJulia Lewis
ReplyDeleteOriginally posted on July 27th the same date that I submitted to turnitin.com
In Sailing Alone Around the Room Collins uses a wide array of figurative language in order to create a picture in your mind of the scenes his poetry paints. Each poem is unique in both theme and poetic devices. The first poem that appealed to me was titled Advice to Writers. Collins writes, “Spotlessness is the niece of inspiration.” At first glance this poem appealed to me because I find it much more difficult to work in a cluttered room compared to an organized room. But as I reanalyzed this poem I realized he had a different purpose. Not only was Collins writing about cleaning a room, but he wrote about scouring fields. From this language I began to think that this “cleaning" was meant to expand a writer’s vocabulary and open his mind to new topics. He ends with “cover pages with tiny sentences like long rows of devoted ants that followed you in from the woods.” With this type of cleaning writers could develop their topics and unique language and not literally “Clean the place as if the Pope were on his way.” The second poem that I found appealing was called On Turning Ten. I found this poem very relatable in terms of the hardships of growing up and leaving a major part of your imagination behind. Collins uses many details to explain how the young boy used his childhood to be “an Arabian wizard…a soldier…a prince.” But unfortunately these characters were not a part of turning ten. He was leaving behind his simpler times and beginning to grow up. I think this poem is very meaningful to me because I remember the sadness that accompanied me, and still accompanies me as I grow up. Life as a child is easier, sillier, and more imaginative. Collins brushes past the fun complexity of each age but his overall tone is sadness and regretfulness. Even though he is only turning ten he understands that when he falls upon the sidewalks of life, he bleeds. The third poem I enjoyed is titled The Flight of the Reader. I think that because this is the last poem of the book Collins conveys a sense of irony that he doesn’t necessarily need the reader. He writes, “It’s not that I can’t wait for the lunch bell to see your face again. It’s not like that. Not exactly.” The reader is the parrot perched on his shoulder waiting for more and he is the one scared of the morning that will unbind us from him. He conveys that poets need readers to bring meaning to their words. Collins also uses sarcasm when poking fun at other authors for their pestering, “invisible gnats of meaning.” I find this poem meaningful because it ties the entire book together as it somewhat gives thanks to the readers who have taken the time to read his words.
While reading Julia’s blog post I found myself reconsidering a few things I had originally thought while also strongly agreeing with them. Her response was insightful and showed that she took the time to fully understand and analyze these poems. Julia's interpretation of Advice to Writers did not appear to me until reading it here. After rereading the poem with this in mind, I see where this underlying message comes from and I agree with Julia when she says that the cleaning is an opening to explore a world not seen by the writer yet. I also agree with Julia with her look on the poem "On Turning Ten." We have all felt the feeling of growing not knowing what to expect when it happens and the narrator in this poem feels just that way. He does not know what to expect so he automatically assumes it to be worse than what he's already had. Collins perfectly captures Lastly, I agree with Julia's take on the poem "The Flight of the Reader." Collins pokes around with the reader, telling them that he is very grateful that they stayed around until the end with him, thinking all the same things as he did while writing it.
DeleteWow! What thorough and insightful responses. It took me quite a while to read them, but I was soooo impressed and felt excited to start the year reuniting with you former students and getting to know the rest of you. Judging from the caliber of these comments, we have the makings of a great year ahead of us. Keep your second comments briefer, please. And savor each of these beautiful summer days! Ms. C.
ReplyDeleteCatherine Penn
ReplyDeleteOriginally posted on July 29th
While reading Billy Collins’ Sailing Alone Around the Room, three poems in particular stuck out from all the great poems complied in this book. These three poems are “The History Teacher”, “The Rival Poet”, and “Nostalgia.” The three of these had an element of humor contrasted with an element of seriousness in each of them. In “The History Teacher,” Collins depicts a person that can’t break his students’ hearts. Collins makes the reader, and his students, feel that everything is safe in the world, as if nothing bad had ever happened and nothing bad ever will happen. The tone of this piece is playful and reminds me of what I learned in history as a kid, compared to today. The second poem mentioned is “The Rival Poet” which is my favorite piece from this book. From the beginning Collins uses imagery to make the reader feel what the narrator is feeling. The reader can instantly picture a column of book titles that “looms over…like Roman architecture.” and feels the narrators sense of overwhelming under accomplishment. Then to use the image of the head of a pin and how there is room left over on it for dancing angels and a prayer explain just how teeny-tiny the narrator’s accomplishments are. The last two stanzas use humor to explain his dreams of having a fancy foreign women accompany him while this rival stands below, green with envy “with some local Cindy hanging all over [him.]” The last poem is “Nostalgia” which is satirical and loaded with imagery. Everyone at point in their life has heard someone recall a decade in the 1900’s and describe the things they were listening to or the clothes they wearing. Collins’ play on this is to bring the reader back to times not commonly recalled. The reader starts to believe that Collins has been living for hundreds of years when he describes “the Struggle” as the dance of 1572 and one’s sister Daphne practicing alone in her room. To conclude, these three poems were the most memorable and enjoyable to me and had me re-reading them numerous times in my head, out loud, and to anyone that would listen.
I agree with Catherine in how "The History Teacher" reminds me of the change in our history education from our elementary school days to now. However, though this peace shows the history teacher's desire to protect the children of his class, I cannot help but be upset because of my understanding of how the students will feel when they do discover the truth. So though the tone is somewhat playful, I cannot help but get frustrated while reading it. This, however, is most likely due to my bias and having never been put in the teacher's shoes.
DeleteCatherine's description of "The Rival Poet" is very similar to what I would have said. The one thing I feel is important to note is the curiosity I felt while reading this. I began to think who exactly is Collins' rival poet, and if this sense of grandeur surrounding him was due to a skew in Collins' perception or if it was truly there.
As for "Nostalgia," in my description I agreed with Catherine and how the reader begins to believe Collins has been alive for multiple centuries, due to the descriptive detail he uses to flourish the page.
I think that Catherine's interpretation of "The History Teacher" is accurate and that the poem is playful and fun to read, yet it doesn't capture what I thought was the true essence. I think that Collins' is really trying to point out that the teacher knows all the evil of the world and though he tries to protect the kids from history, the present is violent and they will lose their innocence anyway. The way Catherine interpreted "The Rival Poet" was very similar to how I had, and I loved how she noted the humor of the, "local Cindy." I can relate to this poem because everyone has that one person in life who is constantly trying to get ahead and one-up them that they dream of defeating. Catherine's interpretation of "Nostalgia"was a little different than mine, but I thought she was thoughtful and truly enjoyed the poem. I believe that Collins' was saying how he lives in the past because its easier and seems better than the present, but he does it in a lighthearted way.
DeleteJulia's blog post on Advice To Writers stood out to me as she explains she cannot write with a fresh mind without first being in a clean space because for myself, the workspace is irrelevant. I do some of my best writing in my room, which although is not a nightmare, I am not the neat freak cleaner my parents wish I was. I rely on inspiration of the mind rather than the blankness of the mind to create new ideas. I didn't have a connection to the poem. The way Julia digested the "clean" theme of the poem as being able to expand one's mind to a greater vocabulary made me reconsider the poem as insightful. With her image of the poem Turning Ten, however, I couldn't agree more with the tone Julia found while reading this poem. Her description of leaving behind precious childhood fantasies was spot on. I appreciated that she caught on to Collin's beginning to realize he's bleeding as part of getting older. As for The Flight Of the Reader, I agreed with Julia's opinions on Collin's use of sarcasm and while reading the poem myself I noticed most of the same details as Julia.
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