Poem Analysis: I Love You By Billy Collins

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Make-Up The concept of love is not easily understood by many yet daily it’s used so commonly, it's starting to lose its meaning, rather than a declaration of emotions and companions, we have started to use it as a greeting. In the poem I Love You by Billy Collins, the speaker talks about how “I love you” is a term that is overused by many people. The speaker shares with us his point of view to show how he views the use of the term. He also uses other devices like imagery, allusion and similes to share his view. In the beginning the speaker shares his views and experiences with the phrase “I love you” by telling us what he notices. In the first stanza he states” I noticed that you always say it to each of your children” telling …show more content…

Though the speaker does state he enjoys to hear it he realizes he's used it so often that “The problem is I now find myself saying it back if only because just saying good-bye” sharing it’s meaning is fading and becoming like a simple thing like a goodbye.
The speaker then uses simile and allusion as well to reveal to us how he’d prefer it to say it in more entitled moments. He states how he’d rather use it in important moments “like shouting it out as I leaped into the red mouth of a volcano” sharing how he wants to use it in non everyday things. He also states “while we are desperately clasping hands before our plane plunges into the Gulf of Mexico” to share another huge moment he’d use it in. He uses the allusion of Bartleby to share how limited he wants to use the phrase like in the short story how limited the amount of help Bartleby received.
The author shares with us images to describe when to him it’d be best to use the phrase. He describes how he’d use it when plunging “into the Gulf of Mexico” because it not something that happens every day. Another scenario he describes is if he were to leap into the “red mouth of a volcano with you standing helplessly on the smoking rim” which is another example. He prefers us to use it in the right moment at the right

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