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“The Most Popular Poet in America”. Jack Doyle Erin Morris Brad F ortunato. Billy Collins. Background. Born- New York C ity on March 22, 1941 Son of W illiam and Katherine William- electrician Katherine- nurse. Background. B.A.- college of Holy Cross - PowerPoint PPT Presentation
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Jack DoyleErin Morris Brad Fortunato
BILLY COLLINS
“The Most Popular Poet in America”
Background
Born- New York City on March 22, 1941
Son of William and Katherine William- electrician Katherine- nurse
Background
B.A.- college of Holy Cross M.A. & P.H.D. – university of
California Won many different awards
including poet of the year
Background
Leads a normal life in as a professor at Lehman university of the City University of New York.
Appointed as poet laureate of the United States from 2001 to 2003
influences
Made suburban and for the middle class
Used other poets examples to find himself
Others poems influenced him The New Poetry book got him into
poetry Influenced by nature
influences-other poets
George Herbert, and John Donne.
Memorizing “The Sun Rising” by John DonneBY BILLY COLLINS Every reader loves the way he tells off the sun, shouting busy old fool into the English skies even though they were likely cloudy on that seventeenth-century morning.
And it’s a pleasure to spend this sunny day
But after a few steps into stanza number two,wherein the sun is blinded by his mistress’s eyes,
I can feel the first one begin to fade like sky-written letters on a windy day.
And by the time I have taken in the third, the second is likewise gone, a blown-out candle now,a wavering line of acrid smoke.
So it’s not until I leave the houseand walk three times around this hidden lakethat the poem begins to showany interest in walking by my side.
Then, after my circling,
better than the courteous dominion of her being all states and him all princes,
better than love’s power to shrinkthe wide world to the size of a bedchamber,
and better even than the compressionof all that into the rooms of these three stanzasis how, after hours stepping up and down the poem,testing the plank of every line,it goes with me now, contracted into a little spot within.
influences
His poems convey the fact that his life isn’t very exciting.
Bored as a child so he used his poems as an escape.
Tried to use humor, and transport himself to different places.
Exposed to these poems as a child
influences
Aristotle influences his work
influences
Everyday life influences his poems
No TimeBy Billy CollinsIn a rush this weekday morning, I tap the horn as I speed past the cemetery where my parents are buried side by side beneath a slab of smooth granite.
Then, all day, I think of him rising up to give me that look of knowing disapproval while my mother calmly tells him to lie back down.
Poem- suburbs and nature influence him
Her
BY BILLY COLLINS
“There is no noisier place than the suburbs,
someone once said to me
as we were walking along a fairway,
and every day is delighted to offer fresh evidence:
the chainsaw, the leaf-blower blowing
one leaf around an enormous house with columns,
on Mondays and Thursdays the garbage truck
equipped with air brakes, reverse beeper, and merciless grinder. “
CANADA
BY BILLY COLLINS
“I am writing this on a strip of white birch bark
that I cut from a tree with a penknife.
There is no other way to express adequately
the immensity of the clouds that are passing over the farms
and wooded lakes of Ontario and the endless visibility
that hands you the horizon on a platter.
I am also writing this in a wooden canoe,
a point of balance in the middle of Lake Couchiching,
resting the birch bark against my knees.
I can feel the sun’s hands on my bare back,
but I am thinking of winter”
Literary Criticism
John Taylor Says “His humor often seems simply a means, a invitation to serious reflection”
We did find this in his poems, funny leading to serious
“some examples of playful imagination”
You can tell in these poems that Collins is letting his imagination run wild
Literary Criticism-Positive “uses humor to lead the reader into
the place, often a serious and surprising place”
We found that the only type of humor in his poems is irony
“Collins often uses an abstract title which he subsequently explores in a variety of concrete images”
This is very true- we found that the title was only loosely connected to the poem itself
Literary Criticism-negative “seems to have been written in code” Seems clear but we understand why the
critics said this because his speech patterns are so random
“Collins technique produces poems that evoke no emotional response from the reader”
We tend to agree with this statement we don’t feel any emotional attachment to any of the things in the poem
Literary criticism
“He makes readers believe that the only way to approach a poem is to ‘tie it to a chair with a rope and torture a confession out of it’”
Its hard to just skim his poems- you have to really dig down and analyze them.
“We seem to always know where we are in a Billy Collins poem, but not where he is going”
Billy Collins doesn’t follow one set format- he just speaks what is on his mind
Thank You for listening
Billy Collins has made and continues to make numerous contributions to modern poetry
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