Invective- Billy Collins 

from the title, where do you think we are going?

Rome. invective is a form of classical libel used in Roman polemical verse.

*Libel-type of poetry from the renaissance.*

what sort of trip do you think this ill be?

a trip through time, alone. to a simpler place where we feel more at peace with ourselves.

after the first stanza where do we seem to be going?

ancient ROME.

what sights do we see? 

parallel columns

grassy fields

where do we go next?

western ninth century Ireland.

who goes with us? 

we go alone.

do we meet animals?

badgers, fish, deer and birds

I love the contrast between the warm Rome and cold Ireland. this expresses the different types of people there are, the different locations people bring themselves to. 

by Elsa Rottjers 

Invective- Billy Collins

Turn away from me, you, and get lost in the past.

Back to ancient Rome you go, with its parallel columns and syllogisms.

Stuff yourself with berries, ea lying on your side.

Suck balls of snow carried down from the Alps for dessert.

I don’t care. I am leaving too, but for the margins of history,

To a western corner of ninth century Ireland I go,

to a vanishing, grey country far beyond your call.

There I will dwell with badgers, fish and deer,

birds piercing the air and the sound of little bells.

I will stand in pastures of watercress by the salmon-lashing sea.

I will stare into the cold, unblinking eyes of cows.