Billy Collins Essay

Words: 2349
Pages: 10
Open Document
A Somber Geniality Art is purely a matter of perspective as influenced by perception. It teaches us empathy and challenges us to become aware of our place in the world in the context of others. Billy Collins fulfills that role and is unique among poets in that he does just that with a bit of flare; he brings us into his arms with beckoning only to shake and rattle us once we’re in. He doesn't shy away from risqué subject matter, nor is he afraid to raise an opposition against our concepts of the sacred and taboo. Billy Collins’s poetry offers insight into the routine and idealistic aspects of daily life while also challenging us to think deeper; he achieves this in his poem The Afterlife through clear writing style, relatively simple language, and the use of heavily …show more content…
Others are standing naked before a judge who sits with a golden ladder on one side, a coal chute on the other. (Collins 1)
In this stanza, Collins makes a light hearted jab at popular notions about death: the blinding white light and the judge of the dead. He comments here in the first analogy on the phenomena often described by the victims of near death experiences when a shining white light greets them upon their leaving the physical realm. I'm the second analogy, he depicts the Judeo-Christian
God with a “golden ladder” (heaven) and a “coal chute” (hell); he presents a comical interpretation of ideas which some people consider too sacred to even discuss, and is this disregard for social taboo that earns Collins his mixed reviews (Kauffman 83). This role of pushing the taboo is not one Collins is a stranger to, considering the breadth of his work and the near vulgarity it sometimes employs.
Another aspect of Collins’s work which separates him from a great many contemporary poets is the fact that he is also unabashed about using satire and humor, and his meditative lyrics utilize a range of tone from the absurd to highly serious. (Marshall
Show More

Related Documents: Billy Collins Essay

Purity Billy Collins Analysis Essay

Billy Collins is by far one of the most famous American poets in both the 20th and 21st century. His popularity comes from his service as the U.S. Poet Laureate from 2001-2003. But for all his fame Billy Collins sees his poems to be “suburban, domestic, middle class, and its sort of unashamedly that.” (Poetry Foundation 2014). Collins simplicity comes from his ability to use a tone of seriousness and sarcastic humor within the same poem. Collins poem “Purity” uses both tones to give an answer to…

Words 1325 - Pages 6

Analysis Of Billy Collins 'Poem Man Listening To Disc'

to the English Oxford Living Dictionary for something to be American it must “Relate to or characteristic of the United States or its inhabitants.” It is very difficult to prove something is not American. For this essay, I decided to analyze the poem Man Listening to Disc by Billy Collins. Man Listening to Disc was written in September 1999. Man Listening to Disc is a poem that falls into the category of first degree of Americanness. The poem I am discussing is set in one of the largest cities in…

Words 564 - Pages 3

Sculptor With A Brush Summary

In her essay, “Redefining the African–American Self, This mass migration was an important first step towards gaining control over ones identity and destiny. LaFalle-Collins writes, “… this black migration to in North was also symbolically transformative in that it constituted one of the first acts in the African –American redefinition of self…

Words 1464 - Pages 6

Differences: Sexual Intercourse and Child Essay

Brittani Banks Persuasive Essay December 12, 2013 Differences “A child who is allowed to be disrespectful to his or her parents will not have true respect for anyone” said Billy Graham. Have you ever met a child that was so careless and so disrespectful that you could just get them and give them an old fashion beat down? Well I have! My O my, the thoughts that go through my head when I think of the children growing up today troubles my mind. This generation of children growing up is one hundred…

Words 2269 - Pages 10