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American literature and culture
American literature and society
American literature and culture
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Degree of Americanness: “Man Listening to Disc” by Billy Collins
An American, if they are familiar with poetry, is familiar with the name Billy Collins. Collins served as Poet Laureate of the United States from 2001 to 2003, and the public continues to respect his name as one of the most renowned exemplars of modern American poetry. Consequently, if given a degree of “Americanness”, Collins’ poem “Man Listening to Disc” ranks as nothing less than first-degree American, capturing within it Collins’ characteristic style of writing that Americans have loved, as well as personal and small details of the American experience. “Man Listening to Disc” describes the episode of a man making his way throughout a rather unremarkable portion of his day.
“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
The play I went to see was The Music Man performed by the Mesa Encore Theatre at the Mesa Community College. I saw this performance on November 20th. The main performers in this play were Zac Bushman as Harold Hill and Lauren Koeritzer as Marian Paroo. Alongside them, a mix of both adults and children as young as 8 acted in this production. The cast and crew used appropriate clothing to match the time and place. Lights were utilized scarcely, with not much more than spotlights or front and back lights. The set was extravagant, cute, and fitting for the setting and time. Overall, this musical was vibrantly performed and left me with positive impressions regarding presentation and production.
It is a way to crucially engage oneself in setting the stage for new interventions and connections. She also emphasized that she personally viewed poetry as the embodiment of one’s personal experiences, and she challenged what the white, European males have imbued in society, as she declared, “I speak here of poetry as the revelation or distillation of experience, not the sterile word play that, too often, the white fathers distorted the word poetry to mean — in order to cover their desperate wish for imagination without insight.”
Poems are forms of communication that give an applicable view of the past, present and future events. Reading the poem titled “America”, written by Richard Blanco brought me memories from my childhood in my parent’s house and also what is happening now in my house as a parent. The poem explains how one person doesn’t have all the knowledge about something. It also, describes the daily life struggles I experienced during my childhood, when my parent 's and I moved from our hometown to live in another town becuase of their work and it brings to light the conflict of cultures I and my children are going through since we moved to United State of America .
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 is one of the most credited poets of this century and last. He is a man of many talents, most recognized though by his provocative and riveting poetry. As John McEnroe was to the sport of tennis, Billy Collins has done the same for the world of poetry. Collin’s rejected the old ways of poetry, created his own form, broke all the rules, and still retains the love and respect of the poet community. Collins has received the title of Poet Laureate of the United States twice and also has received countless awards and acknowledgements. He has achieved this through a style of poetry that is not over-interpreted and hard to understand to most, but that of the complete opposite, his poetry is hospitable and playful.
Jarrell, Randall. ?Fifty Years of American Poetry.? The Third Book of Criticism. NY: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1969.
For this assignment, I have decided to write about a famous poem of Billy Collins which is titled as ‘Introduction to Poetry’ written in 1996.
Traditionally, dirges are composed in the form of a song or hymn of mourning as a memorial to a dead person. The very definition suggests that the particular qualities of the dead individual deserve recognition. The dirge is not just written for anyone, but for those deserving of glorification, who survive in the memories of the living as testaments to the greater capacities of humankind. It is against this traditional definition that Kenneth Fearing’s poem, “Dirge”, is working, not only as an overt commentary on the social, cultural, and political factors surrounding the destabilization of 1930’s America but also as an abstraction of the prevalent views of reality: the dehumanization of the human. Fearing superimposes these thematic projects onto the context of the Great Depression, a period of American history often seen as representing overarching society decline, the dull malaise of futility, and the alienation of the individual. Through an exploration of the structural elements of “Dirge”, one can find just how Fearing constructs a particular vision of modernism.
After a close analysis of “America” by Tony Hoagland, the poem warns and points out the problems with our consumerism. Hoagland uses metaphors and imagery to describe the actions of American, while throwing in counteracting themes. And uses thoughts and dreams to bring in metaphors that complex the poem.
The Anthology, “American Autobiography: Retrospect and Prospect” by Paul John Eakin offers a collection of essays that focus on a major period in the history of American literature. The essays focus on diversity, identity and the varieties in the literature of American Autobiographies.
The 1936 film My Man Godfrey begins with two rich sisters picking up a “hobo” at a dump to win a preposterous scavenger hunt and ends with that same man living happily ever after in a mall that he created out of that same dump.This impressive man named Godfrey explains that his reasoning for first going to the scavenger hunt was “to see how a bunch of empty headed nitwits conducted themselves.” Godfrey’s insult at the crowd aligns with Christopher Beach’s reasoning in his work,“Working Ladies And Forgotten Men” that the main movie going population are drawn in and comforted by My Man Godfrey’s negative portrayal of the extremely wealthy. Beach states, “Given the generally hostile sentiment toward the wealthy few expressed by both the working
Mar. 1972: 86-100. pp. 86-100. Major, Clarence. American Poetry Review.
Neil Hilborn is a 26 year old slam poet originally from Minnesota. Graduating with an honours degree in creative writing in 2011, Hilborn has written 2 books and ranked high in multiple slam poetry competitions nationwide. He has co-founded a literary magazine and now does workshops and classes in colleges and high schools. Although his is not an extremely popular and has not changed the game for poetry everywhere,he is breathing some much needed life into the art form with his slam poetry. He draws in a younger audience than many of the classic poets of the last century, bringing “street cred” to what some may refer to as a dying art.Hilborn, like many poets, writes about what he knows. However, many older poets cover topics that are less