INVECTIVE

                     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, eat 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. 

In the poem Invective the persona doesn’t yearn for love showing a dislike for emotion. The title of the poem proposes how the poet highlights in depth his emotions. Billy Collins shows his emotional state he is able to convey his heartfelt bitter emotions. For example the quote, “I don’t care. I am leaving too but for the margins of history to a western corner of the 9^th century Ireland I go to a vanishing grey country far beyond your call.”  Poems in the 9^th century were mostly used to teach people lessons or offering them wisdom of experience of dealing with situations they would encounter in their everyday lives. Billy Collins in my opinion suggests this poem in order to reach out to people who need someone to relate and speak in their behalf of how they truly feel. In my opinion the color “grey” suggests a sense of loss and depression this could explain why the poet wants to “vanish” and be unable to hear from their heart breaker.  Also the part he says, “I don’t care. I am leaving too…” the punctuation full stop symbolizes a sense of pause; caesura the poet portrays to not care but deep down he does.