Presentation for Billy Collins

Billy Collins

Billy Collins was born on March 22, 1941 in New York, NY and is married to Diane Collins. He is the son of Katherine M. Collins and William S. Collins.

Collins received a Bachelors Degree at the College of the Holy Cross in 1963 and also received a Ph.D. in romantic poetry in 1971. He has been a writer-in-residence at Sarah Lawrence College and also was a Literary Lion of the New York Public Library. He is an English Professor at Lehman College for CUNY, where he has been teaching for over 30 years. In June of 2001, Collins was appointed United States Poet Laureate (2001-2003). In January of 2004, he was named New York State Poet Laureate 2004-2006.

Collins has been able to put together high critical acclaim with such broad popular appeal which is something no poet has done since Robert Frost. His last three collections of poems broke sales records for poetry. His audiences include people of all ages and backgrounds.

Collins published eight collections of poetry. He also edited two anthologies of contemporary poetry: Poetry 180: A Turning Back to Poetry and 180 More: Extraordinary Poems for Every Day. His work has also appeared in such periodicals as The New Yorker, The Paris Review, The Atlantic Monthly, and The American Scholar.

Critical Essay on ÐŽ§The AfterlifeЎЁ by Chris Semansky

Chris Semansky claims that Billy Collins serio-comic book Questions about Angels, addresses religious questions without being religious. Semansky evaluates CollinsÐŽ¦ poem ÐŽ§The AfterlifeЎЁ and emphasizes that Collins draws a relationship between imagination and belief. Semansky claims that ÐŽ§imagination is at the root of belief.ЎЁ Semansky calls Collins a relativist which is a philosophical position which asserts that the belief of each individual is relative to his or her own belief. Semansky believes that Collins description of the afterlife, and the images of the journeys of the dead, draw a relationship between an individualÐŽ¦s imagination rather than a religious standpoint. Semansky sums it up by saying that Collins is not trying to send a religious message to his readers but rather he is trying to inform his readers to find the meaning of lifeÐŽ¦s experiences rather than waiting for the rewards of the afterlife.

Chris Semansky, ÐŽ§Critical Essay on The AfterlifeЎЁ, in Poetry for Students, Vol 18, Gale, 2003.

Collins, Billy by Tod Marshall

Tod Marshall describes Billy Collins as both philosophical and comical. He also claims that Collins is not only intellectual but accessible. Marshall claims that CollinsÐŽ¦s accessibility is quite unexpected by a poet who is distinguished by academic critics. Marshall identifies that CollinsÐŽ¦ pattern in his poems are to starts with an encounter of the imaginary world and then reflects to a literary figure either philosophic or religious. Marshals examination of CollinsÐŽ¦ collection from Questions about Angels, to Picnic, Lightning all lack exploration of different motifs. He claims that Collins is not like other contemporary poets because he employs both satire and humor in his poetry. CollinsÐŽ¦ manipulation of intimacy and humor are used to benefit his performance as a poet. Collins often uses his performance to promote his work. Marshall believes that if Collins finds a way to detach from his praised style he will develop his abilities in different directions.

Tod Marshall, ÐŽ§Collins, BillyЎЁ in Contemporary Poets, 7th Ed., edited by Thomas Riggs, St. James Press, 2001, pp 186-187. Reprinted in Poetry for Students, Vol 18.

Overview of CollinÐŽ¦s Works

„X Pokerface, Limited Edition, Kenmore, 1977.

„X Video Poems, Applezaba (Long Beach, CA), 1980.

„X The Apple That Astonished Paris, University of Arkansas Press (Fayetteville, AR), 1988.

„X Questions about Angels, Morrow (New York, NY), 1991, University of Pittsburgh Press (Pittsburgh, PA) 1999.

„X The Art of Drowning, University of Pittsburgh Press (Pittsburgh, PA) 1995.

„X Picnic, Lightning, University of Pittsburgh Press (Pittsburgh, PA) 1998.

„X Taking Off Emily DickinsonÐŽ¦s Clothes, Picador (London, England), 2000.

„X The Eye of the Poet: Six Views of the Art and Craft of Poetry, edited by David Citino, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 2001.

„X Sailing Alone around the Room: New and Selected Poems, Random House (New York, NY), 2001.

„X Nine Horses: Poems, Random House (New York, NY), 2002.

ÐŽ§The AfterlifeЎЁ by Billy Collins

From Questions about Angels

While you are preparing for sleep, brushing your teeth,

or riffling through a magazine in bed,

the dead of the day are setting out on their journey.

They're moving off in all imaginable directions,

each according to his own private belief,

and this is the secret that silent Lazarus would not reveal:

that everyone is right, as it turns out.

you go to the place you always thought you would go,

The place you kept lit in an alcove in your head.

Some are being shot into a funnel of flashing colors

into a zone of light, white as a January sun.

Others are standing naked before a forbidding judge who sits

with a golden ladder on one side, a coal chute on the other.

Some have already joined the celestial choir

and are singing as if they have been doing this forever,

while the less inventive find themselves stuck

in a big air conditioned room full of food and chorus girls.

Some