The Poetry Of Billy Collins

From a young age Billy Collins was infatuated with poetry, even studying Romantic era poetry in college. His fascination with poetry began with a poem by Thom Gunn about Elvis Presley. That poem opened his eyes before that all he knew before that was what his school taught him. Disliking the poetry taught at school, but still intrigued by the medium he sought entertainment from the leftover Poetry magazines his father gave him. After graduating college in 1963 he moved to California to pursue a PhD. in English and studied the Romantic era of the nineteenth century it here he began to think about becoming a poet. He tried finding his own style by mixing local artists like Lawrence Ferlinghetti and counterculture poet Richard Brautigan with the