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Billy Collins essays on poems
Billy Collins essays on poems
Billy Collins essays on poems
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The title of a poem sets a path for the context to follow, it creates expectations for the reader and usually foreshadows particular events likely to come. Billy Collins’ Marginalia is no different, in that it exposes the reader to what the rest of the poem has to offer. The term marginalia is defined as marginal notes or notes in the margin of a book, manuscript, or letter. The word Marginalia is traced back to the Latin forms margin- and margo, meaning "margin." Just by the title alone, the readers can make multiple predictions of this poem and what the author may be trying to convey. The different forms of marginalia are as extensive as the users who create them. Marginalia can be interpreted through comments, critiques, scribbles, annotations, …show more content…
For example, the first stanza describes how some annotations are so critical of the work being read through words like ‘ferocious’ and rage,’ and how the reader critiques the author of his/her argument. He uses phrases like “If I could just get my hands on you” and “beat some logic into your head," exaggerating the interaction between reader and author by extending the analogy of the critique as a physical threat. Collins describes other comments that are more dismissive as lighter marginalia that contrast the harsher ones, displaying the variation of different types of notes a reader may have. Not only does he show the different forms or marginalia, but how different users can affect the type of …show more content…
He describes the high schoolers as less enthusiastic in their marginalia and how they seem to be just copying down what their teacher says, showing no true thought or opinion in their notes. He mentions how one notes the presence of ‘Irony’ fifty times outside the paragraphs of A Modest Proposal, referring to the 18th century satirist, Johnathon Swift. This is both humorous and valid in that the reader is merely stating the themes of the text, not what he/she truly thinks. Collins contrasts the unenthusiastic readers with more eager learning students through an extended sports analogy for their marginalia. He states, “Or they are fans who cheer from the empty bleachers, hands cupper around their mouths. ‘Absolutely,’ they shout to Duns Scotus and James Baldwin. ‘Yes.’ ‘Bull’s-eye.’ ‘My man!’ Check marks, asterisks, and exclamation points rain down along the sidelines.” This is one way to describe the students as fans shouting support of their favorite authors, by mentioning Duns Scotus, a philosopher, and James Baldwin, an African American novelist. He uses the sports analogy as a way of incorporating the love of poetry and different authors, similar in a way fans love and support their favorite football players or
the surface structure of these poems appears simplistic, but subtle changes in tone or gesture move the reader from the mundane to the sublime. In an attempt to sleep, the speaker in "Insomnia" moves from counting sheep to envisioning Noah's arc to picturing "all the fish in creation/ leaping a fence in a field of water,/ one colorful species after another." Collins will tackle any topic: his subject matter varies from snow days to Aristotle to forgetfulness. Collins relies heavily on imagery, which becomes the cornerstone of the entire volume, and his range of diction brings such a polish to these poems
While on the surface Collins seems to want Emily Dickinson, with a close reading it becomes clear that he is actually obsessed with his mother. His displacement shows how he at least tries to hide is incestuous desires, while his anal retentiveness shows his wish to be in control. The indications that run throughout the poem reveal Collins’ true feelings, and his inability to hide them.
With the use of irony and a free rhyme scheme, Collins’ poem vocalizes his opinion on how lying to children about significant facts can only serve to make them ignorant. The way he communicates this to us is by ironically emphasizing events by understating them. He shows how important an event is by mocking the teacher’s portrayal of the event. One example of how he does this is how the teacher tells his students that the ice age was just the “chilly age, a period of a million years when everyone had to wear sweaters.”(3-4). Collins does this several times with other important events in history, such as the Spanish Inquisition, where “[It] was nothing more than an outbreak of questions.”(7-8). The teacher’s interpretation of events, when compared to the actual events themselves creates a sense of unease, as the lies stray far away from what actually happened, and brings up the question of whether or not these lies should be told. Collins uses events that involve death and destruction to accentuate how big the contrast between the teacher’s explanation and reality is. After the class ends, the children leave the classroom to “torment the weak and the smart” (15-16), while the teacher is oblivious to it all. Note that Collins puts “and the smart” (16) on a separate line from “torment the weak” (15). The children in the class aren’t smart because they did not learn about the true events in history. This distinction emphasized the ignorance of the children. This contrasts with Wilbur’s poem, as the lie told there served to soothe a child’s fear, rather than breed ignorance. The rhyme scheme is different as well. Collins’ free rhyme scheme is used to create a sense of unease, whereas Wilbur’s rhyme scheme creates a child-like feeling to his poem. Unlike the parents in “A Barred Owl”, the teacher is portrayed as an ignorant man, unaware of what happens around
The definition of marginalia is marginal notes. Billy Collins’ poem, “Marginalia”, is about just that. Collins uses sarcasm, metaphors, and juxtapositions to focus on all the different type of marginalia, from criticizes to praises, and how they affect the piece of work.
Collins uses metaphors to teach the audience that with patience, poetry can be understanded easily. For instance, he tells the audience to “walk inside the poem’s
Early in the poem “Marginalia,” Collins explores the emotions of readers and annotators and claims “the notes are ferocious, [including] skirmishes against the author raging along the borders of every page” (Lines 1-3). By describing the annotations as “ferocious” and “raging,” it is more easily conveyed that the annotations are predatory towards the author in defense of one’s own frustration in seeking a nonexistent underlying message. Similarly, in “Introduction to Poetry,” Collins is faced with the challenge of persuading readers, “but all they want to do is tie the poem to a chair with rope and torture a confession out of it.” (Lines 12-14). By choosing the word “torture,” Collins is enforcing that the annotations are aggressive and readers retain that anger and violence which is forcing literature to give up a meaning that it is not willing to give up or supposed to give up. The word choice clearly portrays the emotions being felt by readers and how they use their annotations to support the need for an extensive interpretation of the reading.
“I was afraid to ask him to help me to get books; his frantic desire to demonstrate a racial solidarity with the whites against Negroes might make him betray me” (Wright 146) “It was not a matter of believing or disbelieving what I read, but of feeling something new, of being affected by something that made the look of the world different.” (Wright 150) Wright’s constant drive to read eventually leads him to a prodigious way of processing certain thoughts, and cultivates his writing skills, deeming to be a virtual gateway for his freedom. “Steeped in new moods and ideas, I bought a ream of paper and tried to write; but nothing would come, or what did come was flat beyond telling.” (Wright 151) “In buoying me up, reading also cast me down, made me see what was possible, what I had missed. My tension returned, new, terrible, bitter, surging, almost too great to be contained.” (Wright 151)
Good poetry provides meaningful commentary. One indication of a poem’s success in this is the depth of thought the reader has as a result of the poem. The poems I anthologized may take different
One of his intriguing skills as a writer is his ability to intertwine narration and analysis in his essays. James Baldwin mixes narration and analysis in his essays so well that coherence is never broken, and the subconscious is so tempted to agree with and relate to what he says, that if you don’t pay close attention, one will find himself agreeing with Baldwin, when he wasn’t even aware Baldwin was making a point. Physical placement of analytical arguments and analytical transitions, frequency and size of analytical arguments, and the language used within the analytical arguments are the keys to Baldwin’s graceful persuasion. Throughout this essay, I will be using Baldwin’s “Notes of a Native Son” as an example. “Notes of a Native Son” is an essay that Baldwin wrote which focuses primarily on his life around the time his father died, which also happens to be the same time his youngest brother was born.
A poem is usually developed by a certain method or a style that the poet uses to help the reader to understand the meaning of the poem. The poem Graded Paper written by the poet Mark Halliday, is about a teacher who is grading a student’s paper and giving feedback on it. In the poem the poet uses different techniques to support and develop the poem. In the poem, the teacher who is grading the paper uses special tone while grading the paper. The teacher is the poem uses a tone of caring and helpful to the student. Although, throughout the poem, the teacher gives negative comments to the student, at the end the teacher gives the student an A-. This is the irony that the poet uses in the poem. Another technique the author uses
In both of the poems, "Introduction to Poetry" and "Trouble with Poetry", Collins makes an interesting form of observation of the world he lives in while possibly explaining his daily life or experiences.
Allusion first helped describe the ironic aspects of the poem by focusing on the odd setting of the poem. Collins description of the speaker’s town shares many traits of a regular town, but also incorporates traits from a school environment. The following lines will help explain the setting and how it relates to a school environment. The first example of this is shown in lines four through six; “I can see it nestled in a paper landscape, chalk dust flurrying down in winter, nights dark as a blackboard” (Collins). In these lines Collins describes the physical setting outside. Paper landscape is being compared to actual grass landscape outside. Chalk dust is white and powdery, as is fresh snow falling from the sky. And black boards are dark and cold, as are dark nights when the sun goes down. Chalk, paper, and black boards are all found in a school environment, and each one of these aspects help bring the setting to life in the readers mind. The reader can relate to what they are picturing as they continue reading the poem. Th...
The key themes of Baldwin’s essay are love, hatred, rage, and anger. These themes quickly transform into recurring strands that Baldwin applies throughout his essay. These ...
The popular American Poet, Billy Collins, is playing a significant role in the evolution of poetry. His writing style evokes an array of emotions for the reader. Every stanza in his poetry passes the satirical standard that he generated for himself over his career. Collins swiftly captivates his readers through his diverse use of figurative language. More specifically, his use of vivid imagery paired with humorous personification and extended metaphors create his unique style of satirical poetry. This developed form of writing appeals to a large crowd of people because the generally accessible topics that he discusses are fairly easy to resonate for the common man. However, his poetry offers an interesting perspective on what otherwise would be simplistic ideas. The main themes and concepts that are being presented in each of his writings are revered and coveted by the general population. An appealing aspect of his writing is his ability to directly convey the main idea within the poem. As a result, the reader can understand the meaning of his work with ease. The typical beginning of his work gives the reader a slight taste of what is to come. Billy Collins’ unique writing style and various trademarks directly influenced by his ability to propagate an array of emotions for the reader, his humorous tone, and the accessibility of the topics he describes within his poetry.
Billy Collins has used a specific metaphor, simile, rhyme and personification in his poem ‘Introduction to poetry’ in order to show how one should better understand a poem. This poem focused on what the poem actually mean and how a poem should be clearly understood. Throughout the poem, Billy Collins has presented a clear way of understanding the poem by using a very interesting imagery, symbolism, metaphor and a very sensitive sound. The words used in this poem are so powerful that the readers are convinced to think about the issue presented in the poem.