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 a stranger in wanting to know how Collins writes his poems. Collins goes in depth to the process it takes to write the poem and where he puts himself physically and spiritual in order to accomplish the task of writing poetry in order to be able to shift his tone from one of seriousness to humor.…show more content… In an interview while attending a conference at Weber State University he points this out, “I mean, writing poetry is the most egotistical of any art because it’s the lyric—the lyric poem is all about the "I." It’s all about the self and there’s a presumptuousness there. And the presumption is that someone else is interested in your private life…” (Johnston 2008) By the inspiration of writing a poem about the writing process leads to building a tone of seriousness, while the sarcasm that Collins has used in this piece is from showing the silliness in attempting to construct an idea of the perfect method to the writing process. However, if critics and readers of Collins do not think that there is some actual truth to what Collins has written. In an interview at the University of Texas at Dallas, Collins shared what his persona prefers to what he actually is capable of doing, “My persona likes to write near a window in the calmness of a rural house, but I myself can compose anywhere—on planes and trains, in bed and on walks.” (Clark
