Oranges By Billy Collins Summary

Oranges, have you ever felt something for someone so much you would do anything for them. I think this story is a good description of this because this person cared so much for this girl that he was trying to go out of his way to do this one thing for her and had to give up the only thing he had.

I think this poem can be taken many different ways, but the way I see it is that he cared so much for this girl that he would give up everything for her. I take it as a lesson for people to learn not to be so selfish all the time. This girl wanted this chocolate and he went out of his way for her giving the store clerk one of his oranges that he had left to pay for it because he wanted her to be happy. A good phrase in this showing that he didn’t care how much it cost, but that he was going to do anything for her would be “And when she lifted a chocolate that cost a dime, I didn’t say anything.” This shows that he knew how much it was, but he was still going to try everything to get it for her.
For example “fog hanging like coats in between the trees” saying there is a lot of fog in between the trees using the example of coats on a rack pushed together. I think the theme of this poem could be not to be selfish and think of others first. If you put yourself first all the time then most people won’t care to be around you as much. Looking at the title again I feel like it could be taken a different way where people think that he is just being a nice person, but the girl is selfish in a way making him get that for her when he doesn’t even have enough for it. The girl shouldn’t be that selfish. You can look at a story so many different