Change in Billy Collins´ Sonnet

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Billy Collins, the writer of Sonnet uses a comical effect to make fun of old sonnets, how they were written and the older poets, through the use of literary terms.The fact that Billy Collins speaks with a mockery tone of Petrarch, causes readers to understand how he feels about the old sonnet writers and their work. Collins' tone expresses a negative look on old sonnets but also looks on the bright side of them. He is addressing the issue of how older sonnets were written by old poets in order to explain to readers why he wants to change the face of sonnets today. He is trying to get this main point across to readers so that they understand why he wants this change. Sonnet by Billy Collins being with a tone of positivity that cannot be seen or noticed at first glance. If the sonnet is not read more than once this tone could with a thankful tone for sonnets of the past but turns into a tone seeming ungrateful. Collins may seem ungrateful in the end but he really is not. He wants to remake sonnets of today into more than just love sonnets. The first two lines of the sonnet gives readers a general sense of how long sonnets needs to be. All sonnets have to be fourteen. The poet tells us this in lines1-2 "All we need is fourteen lines, well thirteen now, and after this next one just a dozen." (lines 1-2) These lines are also seen as a countdown of lines and shows the poet as dreading to write fourteen lines through his tone. Collins is also making a mockery of sonnets, the way they are written and the length of them. This is portrayed throughout the entire sonnet and is the general tone of the poet. Collins then goes on to telling readers of what a typical sonnet is all about by using metaphoric comparisons. The poet tells his read... ... middle of paper ... ...change the face of sonnets in as many ways as possible but he still is grateful for old sonnets and poets. The speaker in this sonnet is a first person speaker and is frequently using the word we, which means that the he wants readers to know that he too finds it difficult to follow Elizabethan language. Telling from the sonnet there is no clue of the speakers gender, but we can assume that he is a male since a male author has written the sonnet, as well as we can assume that the speaker is the author himself. Collins That is a clear reference to the metre in the Elizabethan sonnet form, which is strictly structured throughout the whole poem. The fact that he uses the word “bongo” in this context means that he sees the metre of a sonnet as a kind of a drum that gives rhythms. Thereby he stresses the importance of a metre in the typical Elizabethan sonnets.

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