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.

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