The Poems of Billy Collins Literary Elements

Collins writes the poem Books from the perspective of a first-person narrator and relates his own point of view around reading and books and presenting his imaginative thoughts around the subject. He even begins the first fives stanzas with the personal pronoun 'I,' highlighting further the personal narration within this poem.

Collins' poem Boyhood is written in ten regular triplets that are in blank verse.

In stanza four of Books, Collins creates an extended metaphor within his imaginative creation of reading, firstly highlighting the immersive transportation of the imagination when reading in, I see us all reading ourselves away from ourselves, straining in circles of light to find more light.' He then gives an end point to this scenario of searching: 'until the line of words becomes a trail of crumbs that we follow across a page of fresh snow.' This metaphor evokes scenes of adventure and fresh, new discovery, perhaps implying that in reading, one creates their own narrative through imagination that is unique to the individual reader.

The simile, 'a caption as conventional as an Elizabethan woman's heliocentric eyes,' in the poem American Sonnet, is a humorous description of the habit of writing 'on the back of a waterfall or a lake.'

N/A

Cheerios is a humorous poem.

The poem Books is set in 'the heart of this dark, evacuated campus,' at night.

The tone of the poem Cheerios is humorous and light, with an undertone of subtle realization of the realities of getting older.

The protagonist in the poem Jealousy is Collins as the speaker and the true antagonist is his partner, whilst 'a tall man,' who is 'carrying a gun,' according to Collins, also fulfills the role of a, possibly unknowing, passive, antagonist too.

The conflict in the poem Jealousy appears to be between Collins as the speaker in the poem and his partner, as he documents the problems of his relationship, stating 'what kills me is the way you lie there [...] that innocent look on your face,' and revealing that the pretense of being there next to him all night is the worst part.

The climax of the poem Snow Day is that 'Kiddie Corner School' and numerous other schools are 'closed.' The repetition of the word 'closed' and the made-up, fictional school names reveal the novelty of the situation and the fact that this is the climax reveals that a snow day to Collins is less adventurous or exciting than it might be for school child.

The opening lines of the poem Paperwork foreshadow the 'idleness,' within the poem that is named in the last word. The comparison between activity, 'enough tea and cigarettes have been consumed here,' and the reality of 'no act of writing has been committed this morning,' further emphasizes the contrast between productivity and action.

The final line of the poem Cheerios, 'I surmised as a bar of sunlight illuminated my orange juice,' gives a casual, understated tone to the poem, which in fact discusses age.

The mention of 'the Tribune' in the poem Cheerios alludes to a newspaper title. The mention of Lazarus in the poem The Afterlife refers to Lazarus who was raised from the dead by Jesus Christ in the Holy Bible.

The poem American Sonnet uses the first person inclusive, plural pronoun 'we' to describe many aspects of this unnamed collective of people's lives, for example 'we express the wish that you were here.' This poem and this voice is intended to represent America as a whole, rather than simply individuals, giving generalizations about the American people.

In the poem Boyhood, Collins describes the 'dazzling eye' of 'the puffing locomotive,' that he plays with, that he thinks seems to 'bear down,' on him. This 'eye' is further personified as it mirrors the child's own eye that they 'sometimes lower,' down 'to the level of the narrow track of the model train.' The personification of the toy train speaks to the imaginative and vibrant nature of a child's play.

Collins uses hyperbole to describe his version of 'seeing your life flash before your eyes,' as 'an eyebrow-singing explosion of biography.'

The onomatopoeia of the phrase 'flower-ruffling,' to describe the breeze gives the reader a sensory experience of the movement and sound of the wend through the flowers in the poem A History of Weather.