Analysis Of Billy Collins Schoolsville

Mi’esha Straughn

Dr. Willis

29 November 2017

Eng 102 Mini Term

A Literary Breakdown of “Schoolsville”

“Dubbed ‘the most popular poet in America’ by Bruce Weber in the New York Times, Billy Collins is famous for conversational, witty poems that welcome readers with humor but often slip into quirky, tender or profound observation on the everyday, reading and writing, and poetry itself” (“Billy Collins”).“Billy Collins was the American Poet Laureate from 2001 to 2003” (534). His work was highly recognized due to his use of literary elements and his high intellect in the field of poetry. Collins constantly receives praise from others. For example John Updike has been quoted praising his poems saying, “lovely poems...limpid, gently and consistently

startling, more serious than they seem, they describe all the worlds that are and were and some others besides” (“Billy Collins”). “Schoolsville” is a classic poem that has been read and enjoyed for many years. The literary elements used throughout the poem help readers relate more to the speaker’s life. Through the use of similes, form and others, Collins provides the audience with a timeless work that shows how reflecting on past experiences can help you. While others may think that this poem is strictly comical and was written only for a sense of enjoyment, some readers interpreted the work as holding a deeper meaning that helps readers transfer the knowledge from the past into their present day lives.
The first thing that one notices after looking at this poem is the title. From “Schoolsville”, anyone can infer what the poem will revolve around, and most people can relate to a school setting. From the beginning of the poem, readers first note the speaker’s flashback. Through the use of flashback, the author pulls the entire poem together and ties in the overall meaning at the end. Since the poem is told in first person, the speaker is telling a story to his audience. If this work were written in any other point of view, the sense of closeness between the speaker and his past life would not come across as personal as it does. The first two stanzas of “Schoolsville” show the speaker’s excitement for his past life. He says, “I realize the number of students I have taught is enough to populate a small town” (Lines 2-3). From this, the audience learns the speaker’s previous occupation and the approximate number of students that he has taught over a period of time. From there, the speaker goes on to personify and even describe his past as a simile. He says, “...chalk dust flurrying down in winter, nights dark as a blackboard” (Line 6). From the language used, many people view Collins’s work as genuine. For example, writer Adam Kirsch admires the light-heartedness of Collins’s work. Kirsch says, “The ingenuity of the poem lies in extrapolating each feature of school life into the life of the town” (Kirsch). This statement means that Collins puts in the extra effort to make everything he describes relate back to school life and present life in a comical and understanding way. The pictures that Collins presents to the audience throughout the work leave vivid images in their minds and only continue to thrive as the poem goes on.
In the remaining stanzas, the speaker goes on to recollect memories.

Because many people who read this poem were once in a student’s role, they start to relate more and more as the poem continues. The speaker talks of “sweating the final” and “reading disorganized essays” (Lines 9 and 11). Much like any school-goer, the scenes depicted in this section of the work are humorous because almost everyone can relate to them. The speaker mentions “the boy who always had his hand up” (Line 14). Everyone has had the geeky poindexter know-it-all kid that sits in the front of the classroom, eager to answer all of the teacher’s questions. “While he seldom makes actual puns, his wit is of the punning kind: he makes idioms ridiculous through inflation, hyperbole, and repetition” (Kirsch). Kirsch also says that , “...part of Collins's talent is knowing when to stop”(Kirsch). Collins does not overdo his puns and witty remarks ,which could become quite cheesy to some readers, but he knows how to make them work. Through the use of humor, Collins brings a lightheartedness to the work that appeals to readers.“The poem also alternates between humor (jokes about teachers and students) and pathos (sad aspects of some students’ later lives or some teachers’ later lives)” (Prinsky). He even goes on to make a reference to Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter. By using this analogy, Collins touches on the social crowd platform. He says, “The A’s stroll along with other A’s” and “The D’s honk

whenever they pass another D” (Lines 21-22). Readers can relate to this also by tying these students to the cheerleaders that sit with each other in every high school, or the football team, or even the mathletes.
Aside from literary elements, form is a literary device that stands out in this poem as well.

Many modern poets, including Billy Collins write in free verse. Richard Howard was quoted singing Collins’s praises about his verse. Howard said, “He has a remarkably American voice…that one recognizes immediately as being of the moment and yet has real validity besides, reaching very far into what verse can do”(“Billy Collins”). His poems often “reject any regular meter or rhyme, though it still incorporates rhythmical and sound effects that help convey a poem’s meaning” (Prinsky). Because the poem flows quickly, it is very easy to understand and interpret. If it were written with a certain rhyme scheme, the ideas that Collins portrayed would sound choppy and hard to infer. All of the points proved before work together to shape the overall meaning of the work. The author wrote this poem not only to provide readers with a relatable experience presented in an unorthodox way, but he also wrote it to show that even though one part of life is in the past, revisiting moments can bring happiness and be very beneficial. Towards the end of the poem when speaking about the present and how students still stop by to visit him and “turn in late papers”, he says that they”....[ask] a question about Yeats or double spacing” (Line 34). This line stands out because it shows that no matter the time frame, revisiting the past can help and not always harm. This meaning can relate to many things,

including life in general, not just a school setting. By writing this poem, Billy Collins has shown readers that it is beneficial to look back onto the past to learn, move on, and grow.
“Schoolsville” by Billy Collins is a very interesting poem. It shows readers the benefits of reliving past situations to capitalize the knowledge once gained and mature. Not only is this work presented in a semi-humorous way, but it uses literary devices and elements to characterize the overall meaning/theme to the audience. This poem shows readers many of the emotions endured during school such as happiness, stress, excitement and even dread. The use of similes provide a sense of relatability to the audience, while the overall theme leads to a unifying meaning that will resonate with the readers. Collins did an incredible job with “Schoolsville” and it will continue to be a classic poem for many years to come.

Works Cited
“Billy Collins.” Poetry Foundation, Poetry Foundation, 2017, www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/billy-collins.
Collins, Billy. “Schoolsville”. Roberts, Edgar V., and Robert Zweig. “Literature: an Introduction to Reading and Writing.”Literature: an Introduction to Reading and Writing, Pearson, 2015, pp.534–535.
Kirsch, Adam. “Over Easy.” New Republic, 29 Oct. 2001, newrepublic.com/article/92146/billy-collins-review-over-easy.
Prinsky , Norman. How To Read a Poem: A Session of the Augusta State University Life of the Mind Series. Augusta State University , 19 Feb. 2009, spots.gru.edu/nprinsky/Eng1102/LifeOfTheMindHowToReadAPoem/LifeOfTheMin dHowToReadAPoemLectureArial18rev.htm.