1. Created By Christina Bruenjes 2011
Billy Collins
Biography
List of Works
Sample Poems
Inspired Poems
Original Poems
Bibliography
Created By Christina Bruenjes
2011

2. Billy Collins: Changing the Rules of Poetry One Line at a Time
Biography
Biography
List of Works
Sample Poems
Inspired Poems
Original Poems
Bibliography
Billy Collins: Changing the Rules of Poetry One Line at a Time
“Lovely poems...Limpid, gently and consistently startling, more serious than they seem, they describe all the worlds that are and were and some others besides” (“Billy Collins”).
This quote said by John Updike explains the wittiness of Billy Collins poems. "A motto I've adopted is, if at first you don't succeed, hide all evidence that you ever tried." This quote said by Billy Collins explains how he can make his humor come through in his poetry without really trying to be really funny (Goodreads.com). Billy Collins was born in New York on March 22, He was born to William and Katherine Collins (“Billy Collins Biography”). Collins grew up in Jackson Heights, Queens. As a kid his father was an electrician. Collins remembers his father wanting him to go to Harvard Business School. William would arrive home with Poetry magazine after he would work in a building on Wall Street. Collins once told an interviewer, "If he had known the effect of those magazines, he probably would have burned them" (Mitchell). Collins talks about how travelling influences his poetry. He says that he never really means to have things from his travels enter his poems, but somehow year’s later random bits and pieces enter poems of his that have nothing to do with the poem itself. Collins lets his surroundings into his poems. He might be writing in his home, but the poem will end up where his head is (“Felicitous Spaces: An interview with U.S. Poet Laureate Billy Collins”). Collins writing has been influenced by many things, and this has caused him to go on and write many poems and books that caused to him to receive many awards.

3. Biography Biography List of Works Sample Poems Inspired Poems
Original Poems
Bibliography
Collins got started in poetry after co-writing a review with Michael Shannon (“Billy Collins Is One of The Most Famous Poets of the Modern Age”). He published throughout the 80’s, but after his book Questions about Angels was published in 1991, he was finally recognizable. After this book was published, he went on to write a number of more poems and poetry collections. He received much praise for his books Picnic, Lightning and The Art of Drawing. Collins received his Bachelors degree from the College of the Holy Cross. After that he received his Masters degree and PhD from the University of California – Riverside. Collins teaches at City University of New York (“Billy Collins”). He also taught at Sarah Lawrence College (“Billy Collins Biography”). His years of teaching have greatly impacted the way he writes and who he writes about. In his poetry he tries to change the way people think of poems. He incorporates humor into his poetry without trying. His poems seem to relate to others through its voice, not through the direct words written on the page. Collins is known for not following the rules when it comes to poetry. He likes to change the poems so they fit his voice and how he wants his poems to sound. Collins served as the U.S. Poet Laureate from , after he served as the New York State Laureate from (“Billy Collins”). In the 90’s Collins won five recognition prizes from Poetry magazine (“Billy Collins”). He also won the Mark Twain Prize in 2005 for the category of humor in poetry (“Billy Collins Biography”). Over the years Collins has been able to make a name for himself and has put a lifelong impression on modern day poetry.

4. Biography Biography List of Works Sample Poems Inspired Poems
Original Poems
Bibliography
Collins is known for many different types of writing forms. He is most known for his unknown results in his poems. He wants to show people that poetry isn’t always about the down in the dumps depressing lines, but that it can be fun and whimsical without having to try really hard. Collins doesn’t like to stick with the standard poetic devices. He uses them more as a guideline than as rules. His poems reflect this. In his poem Sonnet, the poem picks fun at how in a sonnet you’re supposed to have 14 lines. He also picks fun at the thought of a poem and how it’s supposed to rhyme in most people’s minds (Billy-Collins.com). Collins has changed the way people think of poetry. He will be remembered throughout the years because of his writings. It has been said that he will be remembered long after he is gone. Collins has become famous because of his ability to change the way poetry is looked at and how he is able to make his sense of humor come through in his writing. Collins has changed everything involving poetry; it’s not thought of in a bad way because he is changing it for the better. The quote said by Billy Collins sums up his ability to make his poetry his by bringing out his humor, "A motto I've adopted is, if at first you don't succeed, hide all evidence that you ever tried."

5. List of Works Biography List of Works Sample Poems Inspired Poems
Original Poems
Bibliography
Another Reason Why I Don't Keep A Gun In The House
I Chop Some Parsley While Listening To Art Blakey's Version Of "Three Blind Mice"
By A Swimming Pool Outside Syracusa
I Go Back To The House For A Book
Candle Hat
Child Development
Introduction To Poetry
Consolation
Invention
Dear Reader
Japan
Embrace
Litany
Fishing On The Susquehanna In July
Madmen
Man Listening To Disc
Flames
collins/poems/
For Bartleby The Scrivener
Forgetfulness
I Ask You

6. Neither Snow by Billy Collins
Biography
List of Works
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Inspired Poems
Original Poems
Bibliography
When all of a sudden the city air filled with snow, the distinguishable flakes blowing sideways, looked like krill fleeing the maw of an advancing whale. At least they looked that way to me from the taxi window, and since I happened to be sitting that fading Sunday afternoon in the very center of the universe, who was in a better position to say what looked like what, which thing resembled some other? Yes, it was a run of white plankton borne down the Avenue of the Americas in the stream of the wind, phosphorescent against the weighty buildings. Which made the taxi itself, yellow and slow-moving, a kind of undersea creature, I thought as I wiped the fog from the glass.

7. Analysis Biography List of Works Sample Poems Inspired Poems
Original Poems
Bibliography
The poem “Neither Snow” by Billy Collins shows his extensive use of similes in his works. In this poem Collins tries to tell the writer about an average day in the city where he lives. He shows the reader that the snow has a way of racing towards the Earth to see who the winner might be this is described by the quote “And now a wildly blowing race of snow.” Collins is also trying to tell the reader that we are only a small part of the world we live in. He is also trying to show us that we stand watching and observing the creatures and things around us. This is shown in the lines “An eye on a stem/ swiveling one side of its world/ observing tons of water/ tons of people/ colored signs and lights.” As stated before, Collins uses similes throughout the entirety of this poem. One example of a simile in this poem comes from these lines “The distinguishable flakes/ blowing sideways/ looked like krill/ fleeing the maw of an advancing whale.” Two other examples are “Yes, it was a run of white plankton” and “Which made the taxi itself/ yellow and slow-moving/ a kind of undersea creature.” These lines show similes by the way Collins describes the snow being like plankton in the ocean trying to escape a whale. They also show similes by telling the reader how Collins portrayed the taxi as being a sea creature lurking along watching as the “plankton” escaped the approaching whale. Collins might have used these similes to show the reader that we aren’t much different from the creatures that live below the sea. He may also be showing us that as humans we sit and watch instead of helping others when they need the help. These similes make the reader think about what Collins is really trying to say through his poetry and what kind of message he wants the reader to receive. “Neither Snow” is a wonderful poem that makes the reader think about who they are and how as humans we aren’t as different as our friends under the sea.

8. Sample Poems Biography List of Works Sample Poems Inspired Poems
Original Poems
Bibliography
The poem The First Dream by Billy Collins is one of my favorites because it makes you think about what you can accomplish while you dream that you couldn’t accomplish while you’re awake. Some lines that show this are, “how he had put his arms around the neck/ of a beast that the others could touch/ only after they had killed it with stones/ how he felt its breath on his bare neck.” These tell of the “first dreamer” being able to accomplish the things he would never be able to in real life.
The First Dream By Billy Collins The Wind is ghosting around the house tonight and as I lean against the door of sleep I begin to think about the first person to dream, how quiet he must have seemed the next morning as the others stood around the fire draped in the skins of animals talking to each other only in vowels, for this was long before the invention of consonants. He might have gone off by himself to sit on a rock and look into the mist of a lake as he tried to tell himself what had happened, how he had gone somewhere without going, how he had put his arms around the neck of a beast that the others could touch only after they had killed it with stones, how he felt its breath on his bare neck. Then again, the first dream could have come to a woman, though she would behave, I suppose, much the same way, moving off by herself to be alone near water, except that the curve of her young shoulders and the tilt of her downcast head would make her appear to be terribly alone, and if you were there to notice this, you might have gone down as the first person to ever fall in love with the sadness of another.

9. Sample Poems Biography List of Works Sample Poems Inspired Poems
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I chose the poem Snow Day by Billy Collins because it can help us relate to a normal winters day in the Midwest. I really liked this poem because I can understand the children’s happiness of having a day to play in the snow. The lines I can most relate to are, “and listen to the plastic radio on the counter/as glad as anyone to hear the news/ that the Kiddie Corner School is closed/ the Ding-Dong School, closed/ the All Aboard Children's School, closed/ the Hi-Ho Nursery School, closed.” These lines remind me of when I was a young child listening to the radio and hoping for my school day to be cancelled.
Snow Day
that the Kiddie Corner School is closed,
By Billy Collins
the Ding-Dong School, closed,
Today we woke up to a revolution of snow,
the All Aboard Children's School, closed,
its white flag waving over everything,
the Hi-Ho Nursery School, closed,
the landscape vanished,
along with -- some will be delighted to hear
not a single mouse to punctuate the blankness,
the Toadstool School, the Little School,
and beyond these windows
Little Sparrows Nursery School,
Little Stars Pre-School, Peas-and-Carrots Day School,
the government buildings smothered,
schools and libraries buried, the post office lost
the Tom Thumb Child Center, all closed,
and -- clap your hands -- the Peanuts Play School.
under the noiseless drift,
the paths of trains softly blocked,
the world fallen under this falling.
So this is where the children hide all day,
These are the nests where they letter and draw,
In a while I will put on some boots
and step out like someone walking in water,
where they put on their bright miniature jackets,
and the dog will porpoise through the drifts,
all darting and climbing and sliding,
and I will shake a laden branch,
all but the few girls whispering by the fence.
sending a cold shower down on us both.
But for now I am a willing prisoner in this house,
And now I am listening hard
in the grandiose silence of the snow,
a sympathizer with the anarchic cause of snow.
trying to hear what those three girls are plotting,
I will make a pot of tea
what riot is afoot,
and listen to the plastic radio on the counter,
which small queen is about to be brought down.
as glad as anyone to hear the news

10. Inspired Poems
Biography
List of Works
Sample Poems
Inspired Poems
Original Poems
Bibliography
Introduction to Poetry By Billy Collins 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 say drop a mouse into a poem and watch him probe his way out, or walk inside the poem's room and feel the walls for a light switch. I want them to waterski across the surface of a poem waving at the author's name on the shore. 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.

11. Inspired Poems
Biography
List of Works
Sample Poems
Inspired Poems
Original Poems
Bibliography
I Ask Them to Take By Christina Bruenjes (Inspired by Introduction to Poetry by Billy Collins) 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 ask them to take a picture and envision the meaning like a dictionary revealing a word. I ask them to take a ball and shoot it through a basket or dribble it down the court. I ask them to take a poem. And hold it up to the light.

12. Inspired Poems Biography List of Works Sample Poems Inspired Poems
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Today By Billy Collins If ever there were a spring day so perfect, so uplifted by a warm intermittent breeze that it made you want to throw open all the windows in the house and unlatch the door to the canary's cage, indeed, rip the little door from its jamb, a day when the cool brick paths and the garden bursting with peonies seemed so etched in sunlight that you felt like taking a hammer to the glass paperweight on the living room end table, releasing the inhabitants from their snow-covered cottage so they could walk out, holding hands and squinting into this larger dome of blue and white, well, today is just that kind of day.

13. Inspired Poems Biography List of Works Sample Poems Inspired Poems
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The Storm By Christina Bruenjes (Inspired by Today by Billy Collins) If there was ever a day so stormy, so gray with the looming clouds. It makes you want to duck and cover, and throw up the shutters. To lock up the windows, and cover the shades. When the sky lights up, with natures glow. The path is speckled, with the light mist before the storm. The violets have hidden, waiting for the sun. The girls in their dresses, don’t sit out for afternoon tea. The rain settles, into a steady sheet. Everyone hides, if there was ever a day so gloomy.

14. Original Poems
Biography
List of Works
Sample Poems
Inspired Poems
Original Poems
Bibliography
Butterfly By Christina Bruenjes The butterfly sits gently, hidden from the fiery rain. It sits alone, as the gentle frost gleams beautifully in the bright sun. It masks its desire for the sweet smell of escape as it’s trapped in the great unknown. It waits for the dawn of the evening to finally be released of its eternal prison. It finds itself glowing, shining in the rays of the sun.

15. Original Poems
Biography
List of Works
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Inspired Poems
Original Poems
Bibliography
Alone By Christina Bruenjes As we sit alone, I ponder the dark night. We loom in the utter silence, wondering if things will ever change. I hope for the memories, that I still carry with me, questioning if they will ever come back to me. You sit here, trying to make things seem right. When deep-down you know nothing will ever change. We both want the same things, but neither one of us know. We will forever sit alone, in the darkness together.

16. Bibliography Biography List of Works Sample Poems Inspired Poems
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Biography Credits
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Poem Credits

17. Bibliography Biography List of Works Sample Poems Inspired Poems
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Image Credits
Storm
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Dream
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Snowy Trees
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Butterfly
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18. Bibliography Biography List of Works Sample Poems Inspired Poems
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Images Continued
Mouse
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Basketball
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Flowers
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Background
Girl
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