Research Paper On Billy Collins

Billy Collins
William James “Billy” Collins was born in March 22, 1941 in New York City to William and Katherine Collins. Katherine Collins was a nurse who sparked Billy’s interest in words and poetry. His mother was able to recite on most subjects. In 1963, he received his B.A. in English from the College of the Holy Cross and his Masters’ and his Ph.D. in English from the University of California, Riverside. Collins joined the faculty of Lehman College in 1968 and has been teaching for over thirty years. He is a founding advisory member of the CUNY Institute for Irish-American Studies. He has also taught as a visiting writer at Sarah Lawrence College, as well as teaching workshops in the United States and Ireland.
In 1997, Collins recorded
34 of his best pieces of poetry and called it “The Big Cigarette.” This collection of poetry became a bestseller. In 2005, the CD was released to the public. Also he recorded “Billy Collins Live: A Performance at the Peter Norton Symphony Space.” He was introduced by one of his great actor friends Bill Murray. Collins was named Senior Distinguished Fellow at the Winter Park Institute in Winter Park, Florida. From 2000 to 2003 Billy Collins was the United States Poet Laureate. As the U.S. Laureate Collins read his poem The Names at a session of United States Congress on September 6, 2002. It was held in memory of the victims of 9/11. Collins refused to read it at first, also he does not put it in his books, because he does not want to capitalize on the 9/11 attacks in any way, shape, or form.
The New York Times named Billy Collins “The most popular poet in America.” When he left the University of Pittsburgh Press and moved to the Random House the advance he received was shocking.
He had a six-figure sum for a three-book deal. In the poetry world that kind of offer is unheard of. With the help of his literary agent, Chris Calhoun of Sterling Lord Literistic and editor Daniel Menaker, Billy Collins remained at the top of the literary world for quite a while. Collins has several prizes in recognition of his published poems. In 1994, Collins won “Poet of the Year,” and in 2005, Collins was the first recipient of the Mark Twain Prize for Humor in Poetry. Bruce Weber from the New York Times dubbed Billy Collins “the most popular poet in America.” Collins’s familiar, humorous poems welcome the readers, but often slip into an individual, affectionate or philosophical look into everyday reading and
writing.
The youthful poem “On Turning Ten,” by the award winning poet Billy Collins is written in the perspective of a child who is experiencing the changes of growing up.
Collins displays this by his use of imagery, specific youthful diction and other literary devices to further illuminate the solemn message that as we age and reality begins to set in there is a loss of imagination. In the first stanza Collins uses specific diction to compare aging to contracting an illness. For example, he states that the feeling of aging is “a kind of measles of the spirit”(Collins 5). In the second stanza the child reminisces on their younger years and the characters they imagined themselves to be. At the age of four the child was a wizard with the capability of turning invisible if they drank their milk in a certain way. By the age seven the child was a solider and nine a prince. The child being a wizard at the age of four and being capable of achieving invisibility is significant because it illuminates the vivid imagination of young children. Then the child imagines themselves as a solider and then a prince. Which is significant because the character being to rank higher. This emphasizes the responsibilities and loss of imagination as the characters lack capabilities such as turning
invisible. As the poem continues, Collins uses visual imagery of the child looking out their window as the sun sets in the late afternoon and their bike leaning against the wall of the garage. The sun setting in the late afternoons represents “the beginning of sadness” and an ending of imagination and youth. The child looking out the window indicates there is a yearning for the days where there was more life in the activities the child involved in but now the bike leans against the garage which further emphasizes the loss of life as “all the dark blue speed was drained out of.” In the last stanza of the poem the young child faces the reality of life. They state that they use to believe that under their skin there was nothing but light and if cut they would only shine. But as the child scrapes their knees on “the side walk of life” they skin their knees and bleed. The child believing that light was beneath their skin is symbolic of life, purity and imagination and the blood is a representation of reality, which reiterates the meaning of the poem that as we age there is a loss in imagination.
His next few books continue to raise sales by mixing wit and philosophy. His originality comes from somewhat an imaginary world that looks like a child book, but underneath everything there is a deeper meaning to his words. He has a source of kindness to his technique, and critics have mentioned how his poems have a noticeable concern for his readers. His honesty and his words is probably the thing that explains his rise to stardom. His style of writing has broken literary barriers in the poetry world. He shows his views on philosophical matters in the world in such a way that is childish, yet in depth.
Poet Richard Howard has said of Collins: “He has a remarkably American voice…that one recognizes immediately as being of the moment and yet has real validity besides, reaching very far into what verse can do.” Collins has described himself as “reader conscious”: “I have one reader in mind, someone who is in the room with me, and who I’m talking to, and I want to make sure I don’t talk too fast, or too glibly. Usually I try to create a hospitable tone at the beginning of a poem. Stepping from the title to the first lines is like stepping into a canoe. A lot of things can go wrong.” Collins further related: “I think my work has to do with a sense that we are attempting, all the time, to create a logical, rational path through the day. To the left and right there are an amazing set of distractions that we usually can’t afford to follow. But the poet is willing to stop anywhere.”

Billy Collins is a very good poet that has written amazing pieces of literature. His poems such as “Japan,” “Forgetfulness,” and so many others has the his readers looking at the world in a different way that will open your eyes to something new. Every time you read one of his poems you will get a different meaning each time you read.