- 4-5 Poems in progress (past due)
- Edit/improve work returned to you today. Remember no grade means it was an automatic D. Do what you need to do to raise your grades.
- Read the first section of Sailing Alone Around the Room (p.1-18) Please read carefully/thoroughly. I assigned less pages because I am looking for quality. Don't just breeze over the reading.
- Please post a reaction/response to the reading on the blog.
Tuesday, September 25, 2012
HOMEWORK
For Thursday, 9/27:
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Ashley Lawson
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed the poem Insomnia because I thought it was clever. I liked how Collins started off with the cliché of counting sheep and then linked it to water and other zoo animals, more specifically, Noah’s Ark. “Now a silhouette on the horizon, the only boat on Earth disappearing.” Collins refers to the biblical story and mentions how it’s the only boat on Earth because people who believe in this story think it was the only boat. He then ends the poem counting fish, in a humorous way of jumping over a “fence in a field of water.”
Personifying death is used a lot in writing fiction, but in poetry I found it unique and therefore admired My Number. The title made me think about how people take a number when standing in line at the meat market, so I related it to taking a number when it comes to dying.
Introduction to Poetry I recognized as the first poem on Poetry 180. I particularly favored this poem as well because poetry in itself is a puzzle. It was not meant for people to read and immediately understand. I believe this is what Collins is saying in this poem. “I ask them to take a poem/ and hold it up to the light/ like a color slide/ or press an ear against its hive.” I interpreted this as to use other senses to figure it out. “I say drop a mouse into a poem/and watch him probe his way out,” in other words, let the poem entertain you. “…or walk inside the poem's room/ and feel the walls for a light switch,” not only read it, but feel it. “I want them to waterski/across the surface of a poem/waving at the author's name on the shore,” have fun with the poem. “But all they want to do/ is tie the poem to a chair with rope/and torture a confession out of it. /They begin beating it with a hose/to find out what it really means.” I think Collins is trying to say that people ultimately read poetry and expect to find its meaning staring straight at them, in plain sight. However, Collins in his poem offers alternatives on how to read poetry, and what to do with it. I don’t know if it’s right, but it’s what I interpreted.
Billy Collins is clever. I envy his wit and his cleverness, and the incredible balance he has found between thought provoking and hilarious poetry. Collins has a way with his writing that causes the reader to laugh out loud, and allows them to tap into their imagination, juxtaposing interesting ideas and images to create truly unique poetry. I think this is why Billy Collins's poetry seems different from all others: because it is.
ReplyDeleteAt this point, my absolute favorite poem in this collection is the very first one "Another Reason Why I Don't Keep a Gun in the House." I think this is the singular most creative and richly descriptive poem I've ever read, but mostly I can't get over how creative it is. The image of the dog itself is so immediately vivid, it's hard to not fall in love completely.
The third stanza, "...and now I can see him sitting in the orchestra,/his head raised as confidently as if Beethoven/had included a part for barking dog." I think is what captured me. It is easy to imagine Collins sitting at his desk, trying to write poetry while listening to the endless, frustrating barks of a neighbor's dog. It's such a wonderfully tangible, almost mundane occurrence. This poem makes it sound incredibly interesting, and entertaining. I also love love love the line, "They must switch him on on their way out." I think it's funny and clever and vivid and I can't get enough of that poem, and that silly barking dog, that I picture in my head as a great lumbering St. Bernard.
In more than one poem in the first nineteen pages, Collins personifies a concept or a part of life, like history and death, as a human man, wearing a hat and a cloak. I think it's funny, and just something I noticed. An interesting quirk, perhaps, with this poet. Personification seems to be his thing.
I'm always left in awe when I find writers, poets or authors, that can put into words exact feelings that I try to convey, or images that I attempt to describe. I instantly fall in love with all of their poetry, and I try to read and absorb as much of it as I can. This happened when I read Collin's second poem in the first collection, "Walking Across the Atlantic." On more than one occasion I have tried to describe the image, viewed from underwater, of the bottoms of feet walking across the surface. Collins simply writes, "But for now I try to imagine what/this must look like to the fish below,/the bottoms of my feet appearing, disappearing." He said it that simply. "My feet appearing and disappearing." I just can't get over how simple, and perfect, that is.
I really enjoy Billy Collins. His poetry seems genuine and real. You can feel the love and passion that he puts into his work, and the love and passion that he releases into the world, with every single word, and I really like him a lot.
-Gracie Elliott
Billy Collins has a really comforting quality about him, the kind of poet you can pick up to read and not be super depressed but laugh and observe with him. In this first section from Sailing Alone Around the Room this is evident. These poems are mostly humorous, and often profound. I love that with "Another Reason Why I Don't Keep A Gun in the House" and a lot of his other poems, the title isn't necessarily from the poem, but a humorous quip related to the poem. Collins' subjects are often silly, or perhaps less significant than one expects poetry to be—though Collins might argue against that. Point is, he writes about things like dogs barking, sentence structure, and his advice to writers. All of his poems, however, share a common conciseness and elegance that makes them accessible and appealing. A lot of the poems just make me happy, for things like the last stanza in "Books": "I see all of us reading ourselves away from ourselves, / straining in circles of light to find more light / until the line of words becomes a trail of crumbs / that we follow across a page of fresh snow; / when evening is shadowing the forest / and small birds flutter down to consume the crumbs, / we have to listen hard to hear the voices / of the boy and his sister receding into the woods.” It’s a gorgeous passage that flows from the page with melody and grace, and is a powerful section of poetry because, for me, it actually makes me feel something: comfort. A lot of Collins’ poetry is about writing or poetry or literature itself, and it’s fun to read what such a distinguished poet has to say about stuff like that. In “Introduction to Poetry” he writes about some of his frustration with his poetry class. “I say drop a mouse into a poem / and watch him probe his way out,” a great idea for writing. He laments, however, saying “But all they want to do / is tie the poem to a chair with a rope / and torture a confession out of it.” It’s a great sentiment to hear pointed out, since I know it’s something I do a lot myself. As developing writers Collins’ poetry is a sort of holy text of clarity, one to be referenced and passages to be gleamed from.
ReplyDeleteBilly Collins' poetry is very witty. He likes to dump his poems with clever remarks and lines, which always effectively catches me off guard. Introduction to Poetry was one of my favorite, possibly because I have already read it, but also because it reminds me of English classes where the class falls silent during a poetry analysis discussion. Rival Poet made me laugh out loud - Collins can make a poem about anything, and still sound like he's being deep and philosophical. Advice to Writers was well written, but I disagreed. A clean desk is the sign of an empty mind! In Another Reason Why I Don't Keep A Gun In the House (nice title...) I was literally beaming. I have a less than mild obsession with dogs, so I thoroughly enjoyed reading about the annoying neighbor's dog. But, whether I loved his poem, hated his poem, disagreed or agreed, I always nodded my head to his ability to turn any topic at all into a good flowing poem. I wish I had that same knack, but I do not. I can't write poetry about anything real or close to my heart. To write a poem I have to wait for a good flowing line to pop into my head, and only then can I go anywhere with it. If I want to randomly write about an orange, I can't do it. If I ant to write about my dad, I can't do it. It's very frustrating, but Billy Collins doesn't seem to have that problem at all.
ReplyDeleteAngela Rollins
I read the first section, and it was just that reading. Nothing special. I didn't come across anything that pulled me in. And I'm not saying that his work is bad, its just not for me. Maybe I'll run across something that I like further into the book.
ReplyDeleteI do enjoy Billy Collins’ poetry, although I didn’t find all the poems in the first eighteen pages equally enjoyable. I thought “Another Reason I Don’t Keep a Gun in the House” is a brilliant poem. It is so well crafted – I like that he doesn’t mention the gun anywhere else but the title because it doesn’t need to be written on and on about. Instead, he just describes the dog and its tireless barking. The tone of the poem relates back to the mood that the title set. I think it’s brilliant that Collins brings in the symphony – the dog becoming a part of the orchestra after the allusion to Beethoven.
ReplyDeleteI also really enjoyed “The Rival Poet” because even outside of poetry, rivalry is something that everyone can relate to. I like the contrast of his style in this piece to one like “Winter Syntax” – in “The Rival Poet” he talks about his revenge daydream. He doesn’t overuse specifics, such as Roman architecture, but uses them sparingly to just add an extra oomph to the imagery. Collins is very talented at relating everything in his poems – the way he says that the titles of the rival’s books are longer than the name of an Italian countess, and then in the third stanza, his date is an Italian countess with an extremely long name. These simple details make the poem more sophisticated.
Like Ashley, I too liked “Insomnia.” The allusion to Noah’s ark and the flood are creative; I’ve never heard anyone relate the counting of sheep to the animals on the ark. He mirrors the beginning of his poem “After counting all the sheep in the world” at the end of the poem with “I picture all the fish in creation leaping a fence in a field of water.” This again is an example of the way that Collins is about to tie everything together in his work.
One of my favorites so far is “Earthling.” Collins not only jokes at the idea of going to other planets, but with the theme of weight. I’ve never seen one of these machines that tell you what you’d weigh on another planet, but I just thought this poem was clever and witty, as well as beautifully written.
I really appreciate Billy Collins as a poet because he is not overcomplicated or overly sophisticated – his poems are not too difficult to understand, and yet they are creative and crafty. Some of his pieces are so humorous and others more thought-provoking. He does not overuse metaphors and allusions that most people won’t understand without research. And despite this, he is one of the greatest poets.
I related very much to the poem "Introduction to Poetry," which details how Collins wishes his poems to be read--not with an analytical lens on, but with an appreciation for the poem itself, the language, the sound, and the poem as a whole. This is a good poem to include for readers like me, who try to analyze poems for a "deeper meaning"--when many of Billy Collins' poems are written to just be simple moments, self-explanatory. There is no hidden meaning. Collins is very forward with what he is trying to say.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite poem that I've read so far, however, is "Books." Collins's simple images capture the experience of reading beautifully. He juxtaposes different images: the image of a stranger reading as if he is "touring a house of endless, paneled rooms," the image of a bookshelf as "walls within walls." The final image is the most beautiful--I wish I could copy the whole stanza.It contains an allusion to the fairytale "Hansel and Gretl," with words like "a trail of crumbs that we follow across a page of frail snow" (12). This image is beautiful, and though none of Collins's poems made me twist my mind, they did make me sigh.
Billy Collins poetry shocked me. I went into the book only knowing the poem Workshop, which I didn't like too much. I expected all of his poetry to be bland and not very interesting, but it was all very nice. I like the first poem, Another Reason Why I Don't Keep a Gun in the House. It was a funny way to start the book. I related to it, because my neighbors dumb dog barks all the time too. I just want to shoot it.
ReplyDeleteIt seems as though Collins uses the same method that I do to write his poems. His poems flow like paragraphs, which means that he might write them in paragraph form and break it up. I find that to be an easier method than just writing the poem flat out.
The titles of the poems opened up Collins' personality. The first title made me want to read the book. It caused me to become interested in the poem. I dig Collins. He seems like a cool dude.
When I read Billy Collins' first poem, I hated it because it was about dogs. I hoped that the rest of the book would be better, and after reading the first section, it definitely has been. My favorite was also Winter Syntax (And no, I'm not just saying that because My read it out loud). I liked the way it flowed and I liked the images Collins used. Like Maddy, I also liked the Introduction To Poetry poem. It make me smile. A lot of his poetry I found as beautiful and polished. I particularly liked how all of his poems had a deeper meaning, even if they were about dogs or writing poetry or whatnot. Every piece is well thought out and his images are refreshing and new.
ReplyDeleteEMILY
I somewhat enjoyed Billy Collins work. As Maddy said, Billy Collins wasn't her style and he isn't mine either. Although I didn't outright dislike his work. Some of it was quite humorous and I really enjoy his metaphors, he seems to be a natural at them. I read more than what was required, I jumped around the whole book when I had some downtime. I did like most of what I read, but to be honest his line breaks intimidated me.
ReplyDeleteEspecially in the second part of the book it just seemed never ending and so much text, then again, I was pretty tired when I was reading the book. Anyway, lets see... his poem titles were pretty nice. I like how he wrote one poem about how Japanese (Or Chinese?) people would blatantly title their poems, you know stating the obvious, and he wrote a poem about that. Billy Collins is pretty clever, I respect that.
Billy Collins definitely isn't my style of wiritng. IN my opinion, his poems are just that, poems. When i'm reading a poem, I want to feel like I'm understanding the point of the poem. I want to feel like I'm getting the message that the poet is trying to convey. I don't get any of that when I'm reading Billy Collins work. I also think that his titles don't match the poem that they are with. For me, that is something that makes me not want to read the poem or I become disappointed. The first thing that I read is a title, and a title is the first impression a poem. If I don't like the title, it won't interest me enough to read it. But if I like the title I am more likely to read it. A lot of Billy Collins poems have titles that don't fit. I can't connect to his writing, his style technique or anything. But it's still early on and maybe this will change as I continue on through the book.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed Billy Collins very much. His style of writing makes it very easy to get involved in the poem,and imagine yourself in the poem. I have to say that my favorite was "Books". That said, I didn't dislike any of the poems. I just liked that one best. "Books" made me smile the most because I love reading and books, so it was really interesting to see another persons take on that subject, especially since most people claim to detest reading. I can't even choose a favorite stanza, because I love it so much. I love how he first talks about a library, then he goes into his mother reading to him, and then others reading in general. I think one of my favorite lines would have to be "I watch myself building bookshelves in college, wall within walls, as rain soaks New England, or standing in a bookstore in a trench coat". His use of imagery is so vivid and I can't say enough good things about him. I imagine that I will continue to find poems that he authors that I love, or greatly enjoy.
ReplyDeleteAngela Boyle
Mariah Gonzalez
ReplyDeleteAlthough this class has started to make me realize that I enjoy writing fiction more than poetry, I do enjoy the work of Billy Collins. While his humor and wit adds character to his poetry, Collins also comes off as the kind of poet that allows a reader to feel comfortable with his work; his poems easier to understand what is being said then other’s that I have read. While Collins pieces are still poetic and structured, his poems do not confuse or intimidate me, but instead allow me to appreciate their stanza’s and lines. I am able to pay closer attention to the theme/story of the poem, whereas a poem that is more complicated, and uses too much poetic language, I would skim over. In our class discussion of Billy Collins, I agree with Desire’s comment that Collins poetry comes off as paragraphs that are broken into stanzas. I believe that this is a good technique to use when an individual is struggling with writing a poem, and also think that this is the reason as to why I enjoy Collins work, as well as why his poetry does not come so serious. (Taking the style of being informal rather than formal.)
One of my favorite poems so far is Walking Across the Atlantic. The imagery in this poem is incredibly appealing to me, helping me paint a clear picture of an individual enjoying clear blue water. The opening of this poem is what makes it my favorite, the line of “I wait for the holiday crowd to clear the beach before stepping onto the first wave,” creating a mood of serenity.
Billy Collins poems can be humorous I guess. Personally i didn't enjoy any of these too much. If I had to choose one it would be "Another Reason I Don’t Keep a Gun in the House." Mostly because the title was eyecatching qnd interesting. It is also very relatable because of the amount of dogs living in my neighb orhood. I like how he describes the dogs bark as being so loud he could see him being in the orchestra. The way he compared his bark to the musical instruments was cool. Some of the poets were a little bit advanced and harder to understand for me. I still really don't understand why he is one of the greatest poets but i think i just need to read more of his work.Advice to Writers was also a poem i liked. I think it was well put together. The way that he implied that spotlessness was the neice of inspiration. Overall It wasn't the best to me but then again I've only read until page 18.
ReplyDeleteI like Billy Collin's poems. They appear to me as sometimes humorous and sometimes related to my thoughts. The way the titles persuade's the readers into thinking the opposite. For example, the poem "Another Reason why I don't keep a gun in the house" my first assumption was "Oh God, this man is thinking about suicide. This is gonna be sad" but as I read it, I realized he was talking about the neighbor's dog and how it's barking interfere's with peace and music. Poems like that gives me a good chuckle and I usually save it for inspirational purposes. Other poems he contributed makes me think of more complex scenarios and situations. such as "Questions About Angels". I know the poem is supposed to be a showcase of metaphorical concepts and to create more peaceful image, but I often wonder the same thing about Angels. Why don't they have all these that we are supposed to believe.
ReplyDeleteShannon Kalia
ReplyDeleteAt first, I didn'treally like Billy Collins poetry that much, but as I kept read ing, I started to enjoy some of his poems. I really like his stanzas and line breaks, and some of the metaphors he uses that you wouldn't usually think would fit in a poem. His poem "Introduction to poetry" has been one of my favorites so far, because it takes an everyday thing, like reading a poem, and explores how you can't just read a poem once and completely understand it, and how it can be interpeted in different ways. When I first read it, I thought it gave the poem certain qualities that almost sounded like personification but wasn't, when saying things such as "...but all they want to do/is tie the poem to a chair with the rope/ a torture a confession out of it." Billy Collina is a great poet and I've been enjoying most of his work so far.
Everyone either likes Billy Collins or at least appreciates his writing. For some, his poetry can be a breath of fresh air, being easier to understand than others. He's very clever, and like I said before when I read to the class, I really did like his poem "Winter Syntax." Actually, I found myself more interested in the beginning of "The Apple That Astonished Paris" more so than the poems towards the end. I found them witty and "Another Reason Why I Don't Keep a Gun in the House" was a poem that really caught my attention. But for some reason I kept hoping for more of those types of poems and it sort of ruined it. Blah. His topics explore a more everyday type of theme, with things like explaining books, advice to writers, and an introduction to poetry. It's all very relatable, and I'm sure that's why he's a beloved poet. Many can appreciate his style of writing, especially poets that have just begun to write or those who have no experience writing at all. I feel that he's more of a "starter" poet, someone to sort of guide one and show a more refined poetry compared to others. You lovingly look back at the guidance he has given you, like a gentle grandpa that you visit every so often that gives you a piece of candy that you don't exactly hate but you take anyways. You always learn something, or in this case, you always eat an old piece of candy.
ReplyDelete