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Billy Collins essays on poems
Billy Collins essays on poems
What poetic devices are used in introduction to poetry by billy collins
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The poem “Embrace” by Billy Collins portrays a charade of an embracing; self- embraced in particular, man. Your first thought when reading this poem is of lightheartedness; even possible love and lust. This author depicts images of comfort, loneliness and disturbance with the embrace of a single man with one’s self.
When I first read this poem, I thought this poem was going to be about a warm embrace between two people who were happy to see each other. I was wrong. The embrace is a lie, just a show to make everyone think this person has something most people desire for love. The tone seems warm and comforting, but it quickly changed. At the end of the poem, the tone becomes very cynical.
The author uses words that would make you think he
was being comforted by someone else. He says, “Her hands grasping your shirt, Her fingernails teasing your neck.” (5,6-762). Creating an image like this would make you think he has someone to love him. He’s a little over the edge and needed to be embraced by someone. But, the man is so lonely, he resorted to embracing himself. This poem is about a temporary condition of emptiness. While this author has a lot of different imagery in this poem, I believe picturing a man hugging himself is the most disturbing. It’s easy to imagine and it serves as a good metaphor. It’s 2 like a cry for help. The man is so desperate he’s hugging himself tightly enough to be strapped in with a straitjacket. Also, it may seem as if the man were joking if it weren’t for his face being “screwy smile” (9- 762). The action of this man is representative of different points of view. From one angle, it is a couple in an embrace, from another; it is a crazy, lonely man. This poem represents the feeling of an average human being. Not to suggest every person is desperate and lonely, but saying they might be so if he were lost with no distinct identity or anyone to love him.
The speaker’s rocky encounter with her ex-lover is captured through personification, diction, and tone. Overall, the poem recaps the inner conflicts that the speak endures while speaking to her ex-lover. She ponders through stages of the past and present. Memories of how they were together and the present and how she feels about him. Never once did she broadcast her emotions towards him, demonstrating the strong facade on the outside, but the crumbling structure on the inside.
as told from the point of view of a friend serving as pall bearer. The poem
This line was very unexpected and this line makes the poem what it is. The poem transition from a love poem to a darker more painful story. The tone of the poem also shifts to a more eerie tone. Another thing about the third stanza is that at this moment in the poem, I can connect the poem to the Greek mythological story of Persephone and Hades. The allusion sets up the rest of the poem and gives the poem a lot more meaning.
In romantic words, the poet expresses how much she does think of love. She state it clear that she will not trade love for peace in times of anguish.
In a way, I think that the poet is trying to convince us that love is
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.
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.
The speaker compares the moment before a kiss to “syntax,” suggesting that, oftentimes, much thought goes into the forming of an emotion. He quickly juxtaposes this, however, against a relationship with nature. Immediately following this kiss, he remarks that this prior mentality has caused him “wholly to be a fool” (cummings 5). Throughout the middle of the poem, he compares the human body to the flourishing of the world. This is first introduced this in the second stanza, as he writes that “Spring is in the world” (6). This evokes imagery of life, of rebirth, of the sun rising to vanquish the cold winter behind us. The speaker goes on to speak of “kisses” from his lover, stating that “my blood approves,” in other words, races at the introduction of unreserved affection (7). If we analyze the symbolism in these lines, we can read them as the short narrative of a moment of enlightenment. The speaker, who has previously approached life in an analytical manner, has been suddenly inspired by the tenderness of a kiss. He realizes, in a flash of emotional impulse, that his prior lifestyle, his careful attention to “the syntax of things” has been dishonest (3).
This poem is written from a wife to her husband saying that his love is everything she needs and there’s nothing in the world that she would trade it for, even for money. She expresses how much she values him and her feelings towards him.
Like millions of Americans or hundreds them that never really enjoy a poem I’m definitely one of them. There is so much anger in this poem that it quickly grabs my attention and pulled me into his world. I have never knew that such a poem could express such a strong emotion on paper, and even though, I don’t consider myself a communist lover I can clearly understand why he might have been one. His world was clearly different from mine and through his words I was able to feel his pain and suffering because of it. For people that never consider reading a poem they should give it a try because one’s never know what they will find.
In 2001 a new poet laureate was crowned and a new voice; the voice of
The speaker comes across to us about the reality of true love. Mocking us with its notions, expressions and yes even our public displays of affection. The ironic nature and the latter affirmation of true love is succinctly expressed in this poem By placing us face to face with ironic examples of the presence of true love it reaffirms our humanity and existentialism.
“True Love” by Wislawa Szymborska is a warm, tender and compassionate poem, in which the narrator is mocking those who do not believe in true love. She speaks for all of those out there who do not exactly know what true love is by asking the question, “True love, is it normal, is it serious, is it practical?” (Szymborska, 1-2). People do not believe in true love for the certain fact they have never experienced it. “What does the world get from two people who exist in a world of their own?” (Szymborska, 3-4). People do not want to look at the happiness and laughter between two people who share a mutual bond for one another simply because they have not found it for themselves. I believe Szymborska is trying to persuade her readers to try to look at the positivity in life and realize that being in love is one of the most beautiful things one can encounter. Just because love has not made its way in their life, does not mean they will never experience it. It is their faith in love that will result in happiness.
I found the selected poem that I chose to be an example of how good poetry is written. The poem was written in a way that could soothe you like you were sleeping but continue to keep you wide-eyed as if watching a centaur. Billy Collins the author of this poem explained the future in first person as if he was there. Collins wrote as if he were touching, seeing, and hearing the area around him. When writing in first person the words "I" and "We" are used. Writing in first person can either enhance the writing or dull it depending on the context around it. In this case, using first person actually had a positive effect. Without using the word "I" the poem would not have been as meaningful or had as big of an impact as it did on the reader. When
It’s been a long debated subject of whether LGBT+ rights were civil rights or not. From being able to be gay and serve in the military, and to simply get the right to get married, it’s still a long road ahead, but the LGBT+ community has fought long and hard for simply rights that straight people already have. Torture, electroshock therapy, basic human rights being ripped away, and the feeling of being safe walking out of the house every day are all things LGBT+ community members have to worry about and have lost.