'Hunger' by Billy Collins

Hunger
by Billy Collins

The fox you lug over your shoulder
in a dark sack
has cut a hole with a knife 
and escaped.

The sudden lightness makes you think 
you are stronger 
as you walk back to your small cottage 
through a forest that covers the world.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_ATQ_hliKk
(this is the youtube link to the poem read by Billy Collins)

Billy Collins poem 'Hunger' is a short poem which blurs the lines between what is real and what is imaginary with the involvement of symbols. Foxes have two contrasting symbolic theories. The first symbol is the most common, the fox is believed to be a very cunning trickster. However the second symbol describes the fox to be a noble guide and messenger who is honored for it's wisdom. The polarity between the two symbols leaves the reader to their own interpretation on how positive or negative the fox is in this poem. Moreover, the "dark sack" is a literal illustration of the things we "carry" with us in the journey of life. In this case it would be success as a fox is not an easy prey that you have outwitted. Nonetheless, the barer of this success becomes arrogant when he mistakes his loss for strength. In his sack he contained both his success (the fox) and his misgivings (the knife). This leads to his misgivings giving way for his success to "escape" and become void. It returns to "the forest that covers the world". When we look at the description of a "small cottage" in contrast to a "forest that covers the world" it reminds us that no matter how grand our accomplishments are we are all just a small part of a wider planet. No matter what esteem you may hold your success or yourself in the end you are no more significant than any other. The forest symbolizes mystery and fairy tales as it is inhabited by a variety of creatures and species. It is also a place of death, danger and the testing of character as it holds the secrets of nature. The forest is also the home of the out laws, this would explain the relation with the fox and according to Celtic realm "the fox knows the woods intimacy". The cottage also symbolizes human modernization as an opposition to the nature of the forest. Lets look at the definition of hunger; "a feeling of discomfort or weakness caused by lack of food, coupled with the desire to eat" or better yet "to have a strong desire or craving". (I guess we wont be having fox tonight.) I believe the second definition is more suitable. Therefore the title describes the strong desire or craving of success. All in all, I believe the poem is talking about the end of success at the beginning of arrogance and isolation. 
By Sekela Thambikeni 

Earthling by Billy Collins

You have probably come across
those scales in planetariums
that tell you how much you
weigh on other planets.

You have noticed the fat ones
lingering on the Mars scale
and the emaciated slowing up
the line for Neptune.

As a creature of average weight,
I fail to see the attraction.

Imagine squatting in the wasteland
of Pluto, all five tons of you,
or wandering around Mercury
wondering what to do next with your ounce.

How much better to step onto
the simple bathroom scale,
a happy earthling feeling
the familiar rope of gravity,

157 pounds standing soaking wet
a respectful distance from the sun.

The poem ‘Earthling’ by Billy Collins is about appreciating who you are. In this day and age more and more focus is placed on our appearances. Collins recounts an experience which many of his readers can relate to (going to a museum) this is also shown by the directness in the first two stanzas that begin with “You”, this proves that the poem is a message to all who read it, assuming they can relate to the situation. I feel that the directness of the first lines open a doorway for the reader to receive the message of the poem, because this is clearly a poem intended to be read by others.

  Collins mentions the “fat ones” and the “emaciated” - this shows how we are never truly contented with our appearances, as was discussed on an episode of TED, where it was established that “half the world is starving the other half is trying to lose weight”. Appearances, particularly weight and size, have been obsessed over by society and the idea of perfection has been endorsed and distributed by magazines and advertisements. When we consider that Collins says nothing (in the second last stanza) about focusing on the number that the “simple bathroom scale” reveals but rather pays attention to the “happy earthling feeling” that we feel knowing where we are exactly and feeling safe because of this. From this we can see that Collins expresses the wish that we could all be “a happy earthling” instead of obsessing over how much we would weigh on “Mars” or “Neptune” or Earth. At the last stanza Collins reveals the number that the scale showed and I feel he has done this to show the insignificance of the number because what follows are two contrasting ideas –“standing soaking wet” and “a respectful distance from the sun” this shows the appreciation that we are far enough from the sun to remain “soaking wet” unlike on other planets where water would evaporate far too quickly for us to remain wet or even alive. This concept is humorous and helps the reader to disregard the previously mentioned number, I believe that humour is the best way to criticise society and convey a message and playwrights like Oscar Wilde and Shakespear will agree-

Furthermore, he recognises that on different planets we would be different people but he also recognises that it’s better to be on earth where it is “familiar”- the word “familiar” implies comfort which is related to happiness, although we could be on different planets being strange, instead he encourages us to enjoy the ‘familiarity’ of our planet which is “a respectful distance from the sun”- this shows how the earth is perfect, as we are the ideal distance from the sun so that ‘creatures’ like us can survive. We know the poem is his personal opinion because he “fails to see the attraction” of living somewhere other than earth. The structure of the poem is repeated and forms a sort of pattern with: two unrhymed quatrain stanzas followed by an unrhymed couplet, and this structure is repeated twice showing a type of comfort and familiarity similar to what the poet feels about living on earth.

I think that sometimes we take for granted how the world is naturally designed for us to survive on it and we focus on the insignificant details such as our appearance and what other people think we should be. I believe that is what Billy Collins expresses in this poem, that no matter who we are or what we look like, we are lucky to be living in a world as wonderful as ours, and that’s what society should focus on for a change.

BAR TIME by Billy Collins

BAR TIME by Billy Collins.

 

      
Billy Collins explores how people spend too much time in bars enjoying themselves leaving or trying to forget their troubled lives behind even if it’s only for 15 minutes. But then eventually time catches to them this is seen in the last stanza it says “when ordinary time slouches past in a topcoat rain running off the brim of his hat.” Billy Collins uses symbolism to show how one begins to wonder if they have some kind of choice other than running after time or taking life easily in a while thinking that they can outline their troubles.                                               

The poem is under the category of humor I personally think it’s funny and ironic because it’s mocking the society on how they set and use their time and also how to avoid their problems.  

The poem is structured into four stanzas, it has long sentences which make it fluid and it is almost as if he is having a conversation with himself because it’s in first person and he is making direct sentence.  The tone of the poem is monotonous because it doesn’t change and it is a free verse poem since it has no rhyme.

I personally think the “bar” is just a setting that Billy Collins used but his main message to the readers is that the poem can make one feel aware of those moments when you are able to step outside time. This can be verified through the quote “this makes us a rather advanced group doing our drinking in the unknown future”. It portrays how people are able to step outside time and observe themselves and other people rushing around doing things that we all probably think or thought are so dynamic and necessary. I think the poem also signifies self-expression through the idea of being hyper-aware of simple moments. I really love the poem because it conveys how simply capitalizing ordinary time turns into this person we can see instead of just getting an idea. For instance in the last stanza when it says, “no wonder such thoughtless pleasure derives from tending the small fire of a cigarette, from observing this glass of whiskey and ice, the cold rust I am sipping”. It is an imagery that made me imagine people drink and smoke in a bar and watching the rest of the world scrubbing their cars across the streets thinking they look “like they have never had a day of fun in their whole life.”   I can say that the poem is compact and clever and does make one really think about life in general.

                                                                                                                                                By REGINA CHIPANDA.

 

 

Child Development
by Billy Collins
As sure as prehistoric fish grew legs
and sauntered off the beaches into forests
working up some irregular verbs for their
first conversation, so three-year-old children
enter the phase of name-calling.

Every day a new one arrives and is added
to the repertoire. You Dumb Goopyhead,
You Big Sewerface, You Poop-on-the-Floor
(a kind of Navaho ring to that one)
they yell from knee level, their little mugs
flushed with challenge.
Nothing Samuel Johnson would bother tossing out
in a pub, but then the toddlers are not trying
to devastate some fatuous Enlightenment hack.

They are just tormenting their fellow squirts
or going after the attention of the giants
way up there with their cocktails and bad breath
talking baritone nonsense to other giants,
waiting to call them names after thanking
them for the lovely party and hearing the door close.

The mature save their hothead invective
for things: an errant hammer, tire chains,
or receding trains missed by seconds,
though they know in their adult hearts,
even as they threaten to banish Timmy to bed
for his appalling behavior,
that their bosses are Big Fatty Stupids,
their wives are Dopey Dope heads
and that they themselves are Mr. Silly pants

Vocabulary
Navaho-1.a member of a North American Indian people of Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah
               2.the language of these people, belonging to the Athapascan group of the Na-Dene phylum

Invective- Violent or intense scolding, scorn or criticism

Analysis
As the poem inaugurates, Billy Collins grants his notion that we all cross the threshold into this world of name calling assuredly resembling how prehistoric fish grew legs and learned to walk on land. That it is inside all of us and is naturally put into the formation of us as human beings to learn this form of bad mouthing at the age of three. He articulates that everyday new insults are added and they yell them from knee level with their little faces showing their challenging expressions. He uses names like “dumb goopyhead, big Sewerface, and you poop-on-the-floor” as a means to show us how amusing their insults can really be when you think about it. He relates this to trash talk that drunks would use in a bar to upset a foolhardy adult and says “nothing Samuel Johnson would bother tossing out of the pub, but then toddlers are not trying to devastate some fatuous Enlightenment hack.”

With conviction,  classic of Billy Collins, he says it blatantly, that there isn't much meaning behind this and it is just the way kids behave and they habitually get scolded for it; repeatedly scolded for being mean when really they mean nothing by it while adults are the real mean ones. Their name calling is done behind closed doors and in secrecy

                “They are just tormenting their fellow squirts
or going after the attention of the giants
way up there with their cocktails and bad breath
talking baritone nonsense to other giants,
waiting to call them names after thanking
them for the lovely party and hearing the door close.” 
                          

There leaves a possibility that behind closed doors, grown-ups know they are being silly because while children say what they want then and there adults conceal or disguise it and ever so often save it for later, inevitably saying the duplicate things as the children had only in other words.

            I do think that Billy Collins proposes that they mean no actual harm with this way of being, but it’s a way to get their feelings out only the try to be grownups about it. It shows in the poem his relation to the children’s minds and how they see adults in saying that

            The poem concludes with saying that grownups save their anger or tempers for inanimate objects, such as “an errant hammer, tire chains, or receding trains missed by seconds,” that unlike children who just blurt it out to one another as they see apt, and that even though we discipline our children for this supposedly atrocious behavior, we then think and realize to ourselves that we do the same thing, per say when the person turns their back, or at an object that doesn't even have emotions and can’t talk back to us, this is evident in the poem when Billy writes that, “though they know in their adult hearts, even as they threaten to banish Timmy to bed for his appalling behavior, that their bosses are Big Fatty Stupids, their wives are Dopey Dope heads, and that they themselves are Mr. Sillypants.” truancy 

The poem carries humorous vibes in the way he compares adults and their behavior to that of children’s so truthfully and illustrates frankly that in some ways adults truly never will grow up. A thought on the message of this poem is that; this very thing that drives adults to care of what other people think doesn't allow them to express themselves as most children so freely do.

This poem is relate-able! Because candidly we've all heard our parents in some way, be it joking or serous, talk not-so-fondly about one of their friends own friends or about “how aunt Betty had one too drinks at that wedding and was starting to embarrass herself let alone them”. This creed or belief system doesn't allow for adults to be themselves in public and this poem points out bluntly but makes you laugh along the way.

Putting Down the Cat.

The assistant holds her on the table, 
the fur hanging limp from her tiny skeleton,
and the veterinarian raises the needle of fluid
which will put the line through her ninth life.

"Painless," he reassures me, "like counting
backwards from a hundred," but I want to tell him
that our poor cat cannot count at all,
much less to a hundred, much less backwards.

-----

“Painless he reassures me, like counting backwards.”

 In my opinion this lines holds extreme power because it’s the line that confirms the cat is actually getting killed and not just “put down” as many people would’ve interpreted it.

The brief stanzaic pause is filled with meaning. To me, it shows that even Billy Collins could not adequately expressed what he felt during that moment of hesitation as the doctor slowly injects the cat. That moment filled with questions, questions on whether the doctor was right, was it really not painful? Or how would he know? He’s never experienced it.

The poem also lead the reader into asking themselves questions on why the cat had to be put down. Was it a sickness? Was it age? Was it even the owner’s decision or just the vet’s that claimed he knew what the cat felt?

“The veterinarian raises the needle of fluid.”

In that moment, with the needle raised our heart leaps forward hoping someone would stop him, but deep down knowing there’s nothing you can do. He’ll do it anyway; he’ll inject the cat and they’ll all watch it die. The assistant, the vet, the owner.. No one will stop him. No one can.

Dina Diallo

Another Reason Why I Don'T Keep A Gun In The House-Billy Collins

By Elsa Rottjers

The meaning of the poem “Another Reason Why I Don’t Keep a Gun in the House” by Billy Collins could be about accepting something that irritates you with something that is out of your control.

The title sets the theme of the whole meaning of the poem, you can see how irritated the poet is because you don’t know whether he wants to use the gun on the dog or himself.

The poet uses epimone at the start of the first and second stanza to emphasise his annoyance with the dogs barking “the neighbour’s dog will not stop barking”. The poet also uses objectification to show his annoyance with the dog, “They must switch him on on their way out” as if the dog where some alarm to personally irritate him, but after the poet has accepted the irritation he uses imagery to portray that “and now I can see him sitting in the orchestra” because of his realization that he can’t actually shoot the dog.

The poem is broken down into 3 sections, the first two stanzas are portraying the pets annoyance with the dogs barking “but I can still hear him muffled under the music”, the third stanza almost shows some sort of new discovery and the poet starts seeing the dog in a new light. And the last two stanzas show his now acceptance of the dog, this switch in moods is the whole point of the poem. The poet writes the poem in fist person so the reader can feel more related to the poem and the poets experience with being irritated. “I close all the windows in the house”.

Other readers may see the poem not at all about acceptance but about acquainting something, but that does not mean he still isn’t annoyed. The poet could be using sarcastic humour to actually show how annoying he still finds the dog “the endless coda that first established Beethoven as an innovative genius”

My opinion on the poem is very mixed, although it is very possible that the poem is about acceptance Billy Collins does not usually write about such deep emotional breakthroughs, the poet is usually very humorous and sarcastic so this could be the opposite and show just how annoyed he still is with that darn dog.

*there's a link at the top of the post*

Walking across the Atlantic by Billy Collins.

Billy Collins shows his attachment with nature as his collection of poems share that same theme. For example, ‘Walking across the Atlantic’ and ‘Driving Animals’ have the common lines “tonight I will sleep on its rocking surface” and “… rock to sleep in the bow and lift of antlers.” The poet metaphorically tries to show how he compares the soft waves with a baby being rocked to sleep.

Focusing on the poem walking across the Atlantic Ocean, Collins tries to set your mind on nature and internal conflict. The poem simply talks about a man who isolates himself by crossing the Atlantic. The reader might see this as a double entente in which the man has issues within himself as well as issues with the pollution of nature around him. The first stanza says, “I wait for the holiday crowd to clear the beach before stepping onto the first wave.” The words “holiday crowd” represents nature, which is dirty and polluted as mankind is constantly destroying it. The author mentions the ocean, which is where most water pollution occurs. They could as well stand for the isolation the poet wants to have in order to settle down and reflect on his inner issues.

The poet continues to explain the man’s journey as he says, “…checking for whales, waterspouts.” The whales represent emotional healing and rebirth as he struggles to connect with his emotion vulnerability and power. When the poet says,”…I feel the water holding up my shifting weight. Tonight I will sleep on its rocking surface.” The phrase “holding up my shifting weight” suggests that his feelings, troubles, problems, and issues are being lifted off his shoulders. In this case “shifting weight” shows how as the oceans waves move, so does the density of all his worries. In the quote “…tonight I will sleep on its rocking surface,” Collins brings an image of a baby to mind, that is being rocked to sleep safely. Hence the man has reached his safe haven.

When the poet sums up the poem by saying, “but for now I try to imagine what this must look like to the fish below the bottoms of my feet appearing, disappearing,” he brings back the theme of nature in which “footsteps” are a symbol of humans on earth leaving their mark after they have destroyed the earth. The poem is a metaphor of which the free verse and structure of the poem makes you picture the flowing of waves in an ocean through the writer’s strong technique of Imagery.

By Ella Richard.

Travelling on the journey of a ‘Winter Syntax’

Analysis of Winter Syntax by Billy Collins

Despite the self-explanatory introduction of this poem through the title ‘Winter Syntax’, I was very perplexed (as usual) about what it was all about. I mean first there is a “sentence” that “starts out like a lone traveler” and then someone “lifts a gun from the glove compartment” but suddenly decides to “toss it out the window”. But as I read the poem again (for the 57.8^th time), I realized that ironically my confusion in understanding the poem is perhaps the same struggle the poet tried to portray in the poem; the struggle of arranging words and phrases to create well-formed sentences that can be viewed as adequate expression of thoughts.

In the first stanza, we are introduced to the “lone traveler” who guides us through this “blizzard at midnight” and yet “persists in his misery” just so that in the end he can “express a complete thought”. This also represents the starting’s of a sentence where it’s all empty as one doesn’t have the embellishments of language such as structure or imagery. Furthermore, the fact that he occasionally refers to us the reader directly through attaching parts of his journey such spotting “the vine of smoke rising from your (ours) chimney”, forces us to relish in his struggles and in the end even feel inclined to congratulate him for finishing his train of thought. One can almost sense that the poem was structured in a way that follows the design of a cleverly constructed argument. He doesn’t give us an opportunity to alienate ourselves from the struggles of composing anything, but rather, reminds us of eloquence and beauty of language and just about how, with enough determination and “struggling all night” we will be able to create beautiful sentences! In-fact, the use of the word “connoisseurship” in stanza two is what emphasizes on the articulateness in the art of language. It might be a simple as holding “a girl’s face in your hands like a vase”, but yet, as the poet later states, it’s these “cool moments” that cause the work of art to be “blazing” or coming to life.

Nonetheless, while this poem may be considered an allegory to process of writing, some reader’s also interpret it as a metaphor for life! Yes, in the midst of this excursion we call life, we all try to find correlations that pacify the struggles we face. In this poem, the personification of the “sentence” as a “lone traveler” illustrates of the hardships encountered. However, despite the “shivering” and the attempts to shield our faces from the “blizzards” that we may face, just like the end of this poem, we may find an ending to our troubles. Throughout the poem, we witness warnings not to give up such as in stanza two, fear is created when the narrator says “you lift a gun from the glove compartment”. The monotonous tone created through the repetition of the word “you” as a start of the sentences, reminds one of a horror or action movie where a victim is about to be attacked. Here we are reminded that sometimes we may want to call it quits and pull out, but as we are directed to “toss it out the window”, we are given hope to not give up. Furthermore, the variation in sentence length throughout the poem exemplifies the journey towards success for the writer and the reader. The long sentences are often filled with a series of imagery that make it more powerful and also emphasize on the different adventures one would encounter in life. The short sentences act like transitions to show how it’s all cycle. But then despite, this one doesn’t feel trapped, rather they get more encouraged to fight their way through their struggles and get satisfied and be able to “smile” despite being “draped in sparkling frost” and having a “beard of icicles”.

Finally, not to forget, the use of winter a setting plays an influential role in the atmosphere of the poem. In many works of literature, winter is used a symbolism for despair and yet at the same time hope. Author C.S Lewis often used winter to represent a time of hopelessness and despair under the rule of the white witch in Narnia. Therefore, it’s a time where a lot of action doesn’t happen and many things die due to the depressing conditions. But in the end of winter often comes new beginnings. In this poem, we evidently witness the harshness of winter, but towards the end, we note with gratitude that the “lone traveller” indeed achieves what he wanted to.

Keith Mulvihill climbing the snowy Tuckerman Ravine Trail  

While you’re here, check out the Poetry Pairing by New York Times, which is a combination of a poem and an audio slideshow related to the theme of the poem. Here Billy Collins’s ‘Winter Syntax’ is matched with the story of Keith Mulvihill who together with a reporter, photographer and mountaineer, navigate the snowy Tuckerman Ravine Trail along the Presidential Range in New Hampshire.

Link: Winter Hiking

Death by Billy Collins

Death by Billy Collins

In the old days news of it traveled by foot.

An aproned woman would wave to her husband

as he receded down the lane, hauling

the stone of the message.

Or someone would bring it out by horse,

a boy galloping, an old man trotting along.

A girl would part the curtain wondering

what anyone would be doing here at this hour,

as he dismounted, hitched the beast to a post,

then lifted the brass knocker, cold as night

But today we have the telephone.

You can hear one from where you are right now,

its hammer almost touching the little bell,

ready to summon you, ready to fall from your hand.

The poem “Death” by Billy Collins is a self explanatory free verse poem with three stanzas’ that shows the transition of how the news of death traveled from the “old days” to what we know as “today”. First and last stanza both have 4 lines; mirroring the ending the way it began. This could take you back to the saying “from dust you came and dust you shall return” that is usually recited at funerals. Middle stanza is the longest showing the longer period of time it would take on horseback compared to the other means (arguably, if I was going to travel on foot my destination would not be that far). The constant comma’s in the last two lines of the second stanza  slow down the poem showing the slowness of the movements, building up the climax as we, the readers, know what is about to happen even though Collins doesn’t mention it. She will receive THE news. This repeats on the last two lines of the last stanza where now we are experiencing the reaction of receiving THE news; the heart stopping shock that “summons you”. Last stanza is more personal and directly talking to the reader “you can hear one” instead of telling the story from third person in the first two stanzas. Ending like that makes the poem more personal to the reader and makes them reflect.

Collins adds several descriptions that are related to the theme of death. Firstly the significance of the wave in the first stanza symbolises the parting of people. Followed by the “stone of the message”, this relates to the tomb stone placed on grave which bestows the general message of the loved one who passed away. The brass knocker in the second stanza resembles the use of brass on traditional coffins as decorations and handles. Death is usually described as cold and dark or as Collins would put it “cold as night”. Moreover there is the passing or better yet aging of time from the “boy galloping” to the “man trotting along”. I believe that this is the common ideology that most people die due to old age (however this is not always the case).

 A reader from ‘the old days’ would pick up on the overwhelming compulsion modern technology has. Despite it carrying the same message, information is now at arm’s reach “ready to summon you”.  We are always anticipating a phone call, a text or a notification “ping” for some sort of news to reconnect us to the rest of the world. This only takes seconds to change our lives, sometimes forever. Technology has allowed us to “upload”, “post”, “share” or simply verbalize our lives in a matter of seconds across THE WHOLE globe. Let’s face it; communication isn’t as personal as it used to be.  We do not take the time to “recede down the lane, hauling the stone of the message” nor go horseback riding to deliver it, in the words of Sweet Brown “Ain nobody got time for that”, at least not “today”.  A reader from “today” would have trouble really understanding the patience required in the first half of the poem; the process information had to go to until it finally reached its destination. The fact that they would have to rely on someone to physically deliver the message is not a struggle we have. All we have to do is wait on our phones and “its hammer almost touching the little bell”. However, some may not think it’s a struggle, some may say that it is much better to wait for it to arrive than it to be dropped like a bomb in your life. I personally believe in the end, the means of how THE news got to you ceases to be relevant. By the time you receive the message you are more obsessed over the information it holds more than how it made its way to you, it has already summoned you.

Sekela Thambikeni

Driving With Animals- Billy Collins

by Elsa Rottjers 

I think the poem is about innocence and the loss of innocence. In many cultures and traditions the deer is a symbol for innocence. “and rock to sleep in the bow and lift of antlers” this can be a comparison to a baby being rocked to sleep. “I feed cassettes into the dash” this personification can represent growing, because you feed something so that it can grow, and with growth comes change.

The poem has a simple structure, and free verse which fits to the child like aspect, but the poem also has long sentences which contrast against the child like theme which shows the loss of innocence. When you’re a child everything is so simple, but as you grow life becomes more complicated and it needs more information and detail to shown.

Although in other traditions the deer is a symbol for “passing through life with ease” so this could make other readers portray the poem as a poem about the journey though life. “but there is no red needle to indicate deer” this could mean that there are no signs in life showing you what to do or what dissensions to make.

To conclude I really like this poem, because I can relate to it. I remember being on long drives as a kid staring out the window at the clouds or looking for animals in the forest through the trees, and now I've noticed since I'm older I'm not doing that as much as I used to, so as I “lost my innocence” I lost my wild imagination too.