...the topic a tough thing to talk about considering it is one of the most memorable pieces of history for the United States. The speaker Billy Collins, is in an extremely sentimental and heartfelt state of mind considering he shows that he can feel the presence of the ones lost in the attack, he implies he may have lost a loved one in the attack, and how much the tragedy affected him. Furthermore, feeling the presence of the ones lost in the attack is one way the speaker proves his sentimental mindset. Billy Collins explains how he is imagining the names of people no matter where he goes or what he is doing. Seeing the names “printed on the ceiling of the night” (1294) he explains, and “blown over the earth and out to sea” (1295) can prove that this topic and incident is hugely near to his heart. Due to the fact of seeing the names all around him, a reader could imply that Billy Collins could feel the tension and the presence of all of the lives lost during the tragic attack on September 11th....
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...The use of line breaks and imagery in the two poems “The History Teacher” by Billy Collins and “Outdistanced” by Larry Rubin punctuate a shared theme that a willful lack of self awareness can quickly lead to a greater societal ignorance of what should shape humanity. In the poems, the use of imagery helps develop the shared theme that a lack of self awareness can quickly lead to a greater societal ignorance of what should shape humanity. Throughout “The History Teacher”, the reader is able to see how far the teacher will go to “protect his students’ innocence” from all the violence in history (1). This is demonstrated when Collins uses the line “the Enola Gay dropped one tiny atom on Japan”, creating the mental picture of a minute atom dropped on Japan,...
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...Structure in “Sonnet” In his poem “Sonnet”, Billy Collins uses the Petrarchan method to carry his reader through the creation of a sonnet. He takes his reader line by line through all fourteen lines explaining metaphorically the complexity and conflicts that are contained in the octave. He also uses his octave to almost post mockery at the strictness of Elizabethan sonnets. He then finalizes with the resolving manner of the remaining six lines. He creates this poem ignoring the iambic rule associated with a typical sonnet. Collins’s use of literary devices, rhyme scheme, and imagination plays an important role in the structure of the poem, “Sonnet”. The author uses simile to describe the structure of the poem. He compares “…ten more [lines] left like rows of beans.” (Ln 4). A sonnet is fourteen lines and the poet already used up four lines and tells us that the remaining ten lines are like rows of beans. He starts off by saying all you need in a...
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...Critical Paragraph for “Silence” In his poem “Silence”, Billy Collins juxtaposes negative and positive circumstances of silence to develop the abstract weight of silence. The structure and placement of stanzas 1-4 help to visually depict the disparities of the different silences. Stanza one examines the tense and negative connotation of “a player not moving on the field” (2) in contrast with the more relaxed and positive connotation of an “orchid,” (3). The stanza reveals that silence is both stressful and peaceful, which helps to develop the variances in the ideological weight given to silence based on the situation at hand. Next, the second stanza gives specific instances in which the silence is spilling with potential to break itself. In line four Collins wrote, “the silence of the falling vase”, exemplifying...
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...Camp has become a staple of the summer season. Each year, millions of children, youth, and adults head to the hills, lakes, valleys, and parks to participate in the time-honored tradition of camp. And, while most people easily conjure up images of campfires and canoes, there is a lot more to the camp experience. In Billy Collins’ poem, “The Lanyard”, he not only captures the activities that go on at camp, he uses an object, a lanyard, which pushes the reader’s thoughts towards something deeper and much more meaningful. The theme of the poem essentially states that a mother does so much for her children without expecting anything spectacular in return, a simple lanyard will suffice and that that should never be forgotten or taken for granted....
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...The theme of the poem deals with depression, loneliness, and helplessness. However, the woman views herself as an object of desires for men and not viewed as a woman with ambiguous to succeed in life. In addition, the woman has no choices, but to smile and act like someone else. The woman views herself as nobody, even though people in the society know who she is; she has to wear the masks to cover her real identity. Furthermore, the writer mentions “ the weddings, babies, cakes and lessons.” There is no sign of education rather these are the roles a woman has to take in other to be recognized as famous. In the last stanzas of the poem, the writer states, “ Familiar as sand, salt, sparrows. She knows she’ll never find a way out, now. The villagers...
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...This poem brings to light the conflict between beauty, goodness, and love against the selfishness of the world. The speaker talks to the subject of the poem, trying to convince him almost that he should share his beauty with the world, but it is obvious that there is some resistance to this idea. Another related conflict that is presented is propagation, whose alternative is greatly discouraged by the speaker. The speaker explains this idea that people who are beautiful ‘owe’ it the world to make offspring, who are assumed to beautiful too. Another subtler theme is death vs. life. This is presented through the idea that when someone has a child they are becoming immortal via the lives of their children. This sonnet employs the use of iambic...
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...the poem “The History Teacher” the author Billy Collins explains how teacher used his language, imagery, and tone to protect the innocent of his students. Billy Collins used imagery in his poem by paint very graphic pictures in reader’s minds to get his message across. The pictures allowed readers to get a sense of how the history teacher was protecting his students by making light of very brutal events that took place in history. This poem contains an aspect of comedy while also interposing the reader with a sense of sadness due to the fact that the teachings of Billy Collins are obviously inaccurate. The teacher painted a picture of an ideal world, one where everyone still held on to their innocence and didn’t have to worry about the dangers we face in today’s time. In the first stanza the speaker used his language as well as imagery to dull down the truth behind the Ice Age. The speaker states “he told them the Ice Age was really just/the Chilly Age, a period of a million years/when everyone had to wear sweaters” (2-4). The Ice Age is a period of colder global climate that can last for years at a time, causing massive changes to the earth’s surface. The Ice age overall brought the extinction of many animal species and made plant food very scarce for humans. The...
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...are roughly the same and the number of words in each line are close. While reading the poem I realized that Billy Collins keeps ever begging word in each stanza different from the others. I like this because each sentence sounds different and it’s not repeating the same word over and over again. He keeps this consistent throughout the entire poem. I believe the poem is talking about how much your mother does for you and all you do for her is give her a cheap craft from camp. The more I read the poem the more relatable it is to my life. To me it’s seems like the speaker of the Lanyard poem is Billy Collins himself. I think this because in the first stanza and first line it says,”The other day I was ricocheting…” This led me to believe that he had a throwback to when he was a kid and decided to write a poem about it. A technique Billy uses in lines 1-4 is imagery. Like when he was explaining how he moved to different places throughout the room and ended up looking through a dictionary and came across the word Lanyard. The first stanza writes, ¨from bookshelf to an envelope lying on the floor, when I found myself in the L section of...
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...Does the perspective of an adult differ from the perspective of a child? Generally, people see children as young, immature, curious, and sometimes, crazy. But their perspectives have very little difference. The perspective of an adult does not differ extremely from the perspective of a child, but children are more curious and naïve. An adult, possessing more knowledge, can reason and handle emotions better. In the poem “Child Development”, Billy Collins depicts the childish act of name-calling. The poem says: Every day a new one arrives and is added to the repertoire. You Dumb Goopyhead, You Big Sewerface, You Poop-on-the-Floor (a kind of Navaho ring to that one) they yell from knee level, their little mugs flushed with challenge. (Collins...
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...The poem, ”Marginalia” by Billy Collins explores the different type of note readers might make, such as students who might find the importance and the emotional aspect of the marginalia. The narrator expresses what is like to be a writer and have your ideas thrown into the hand of others who bring their own perspective to the work. While it seems that the narrator talks about the literal level of reading books that other people have read , beyond that the poem uses metaphor, irony and humor to describe how ideas are thrown in the hands of the reader. The narrator uses metaphors to describe the comments written in the side margins of a text play. The narrator describes the side margins to be a set of “empty bleachers” where the words can...
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...The poet constantly uses a repetition. The repetition is a common poetic device that a lot of poets uses in their poems. The repetition empathizes and contributes a strong emphasis to the readers about the author’s key idea. It is a significant device because it allows the readers to draw attention and it generates the importance of a repeated part. For example, in the poem the poet emphasized the word “life “by frequently repeating it. The word life appeals to the readers due to the repetition and it contributes them a strong emphasis of the term. It also inspire the readers to have a powerful memory and motivate them to be focused on the key text. The poet also uses a simile in his poem. Almost all poetry contains at least one simile and...
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... This Poem As a direct address to an inanimate object “This Poem” presents three main conflicts concerning the appearance to the observer and the reality in the poem. First, since the speaker addresses an object usually considered voiceless, the reader may abandon his/her normal perception of the poem and enter the poet’s imaginative address. Secondly, the speaker not only addresses the poem but asserts that it cries and fools around in cars, personifying the object with feelings. These acts imply that, not only can the poem in act physical form, but the poem also has the ability to present some particular meaning. Finally, the poet gives the poem a voice to say that its perpetual motion (tilt so all the words slide off.) is “enough” to maintain its sense of existence. This final personification fully dramatizes the conflict between the poem’s appearance and the poem’s statement of reality by giving the object intelligence and consciousness The poet illustrates the “poem” in such a way that implies that it will send out a message through out its stanza. The repetition of the word “This Poem” stress the actions of the Poem its self. The poem illustrates its own actions such as giving small coins, being lost, and diving in small hours which emphasizes that the poem is really a physical object, even though it can’t speak in this poem. In addition, the poet conveys the poem as a dramatization or as if telling a story. As the reader, understanding the various situations that the...
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...Looking closely at a poem and taking it all that it has to offer can make reading an enjoyable experience. Being patient with the text will help readers learn from it. If someone is not patient with poetry, they will not find it as a pleasurable time, and will think it is just a waste, which is untrue. In “Introduction to Poetry,” Billy Collins uses metaphors and similes to educate readers that by absorbing the poem and being patient, readers will not abuse the text and rather use it as education and an enjoyable experience. Collins uses metaphors to teach the audience that with patience, readers will find poetry as a source of entertainment, and not something that is being forced upon them. For instance, Collins tells readers to “drop...
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...couple of names: Billy Woodward and William Jacob Woodward. Those two names symbolize the two sides he has as a ‘white’ aboriginal. When he is the ‘son of his parents’ and when he talks to other aboriginals, he’s called Billy. When he’s among white people, being a regular teenager in Britain, he goes by the name William Jacob. At 18 years of age, he gets picked up by a big football team and moves away from home. Besides football, he also likes painting pictures and is very good at it. He tries to live like a white man, even though he is black, repressing his past. From time to time he stumbles into some aboriginal family of his, and is being very ashamed of them. He thinks that they are all drunken and disgusting individuals. Even though he looks at his people with revulsion, he wants to go home and visit his family for his twenty-first birthday. He expects them to celebrate him, though he hasn’t been home for three years. He didn’t even come home when his father died in an accident. Billys’ family lives far away from the city in an old aboriginal-camp. When the day arrives, he drives out to the old camp in his new fancy car. He had sold some pictures to afford this car. He picks up Darcy, an aboriginal-man, on the way out there, whom he spent the rest of the trip with. When finally he arrives at his family’s’ camp, not all of them are happy to see him. Carlton and Rennie, his brother and cousin, greet him very politely and are happy to see him. Rennie gives Billy a nice gold watch...
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