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Billy Collins: Everyone's Poet Who Writes Ironic, Serious, and Clever Poetry

© Thadine Franciszkiewicz

“Long ago you kissed the names of the nine Muses good-bye,
and you watched the quadratic equation pack its bag,
and even now as you memorize the order of the planets,

something else is slipping away, a state flower perhaps,
the address of an uncle, the capital of Paraguay.”

From “Forgetfulness” by Billy Collins.

Billy Collins, the current Poet Laureate of the United States, imparts the universal experiences of memorizing and forgetting through the lines above. They are from a poem that is included in an article “The Companionship of a Poem” written by Billy Collins that appeared in the November 23, 2001 issue of "The Chronicle of Higher Education," Section 2. The poem can also be read at http://www.contemporarypoetry.com/dialec...

Readers can easily identify with the general studies imagery and action verbs that represent one’s struggle of learning facts and then one’s exhilaration or frustration over losing track of knowledge once gained. In particular, the Poet Laureate advocates there is a place for poetry in the fundamental composition classes, in the museum, in the restaurant, even in the boat fishing (if one were fishing).

The following lines are from a poem about a universal theme that incorporates a few of those places where Collins’ deems poetry has a place:

"Fishing on the Susquehanna in July"

I have never been fishing on the Susquehanna
or on any river for that matter
to be perfectly honest.

Not in July or any month
have I had the pleasure -- if it is a pleasure --
of fishing on the Susquehanna.


Cleverly and slowly the poet lures the reader into the world of fishing even though the opposite is being related. Just by mentioning the fact that the narrator never fished, anyone can identify with the narrator. Ironically, further in the poem, the idea of not ever fishing continues, along with the feeling of a non-existent fishing experience. This is shared by the narrator while surprisingly, the narrator sits inside of a museum, which offers readers yet another opportunity to identify with the narrator.

But the nearest I have ever come to
fishing on the Susquehanna
was one afternoon in a museum in Philadelphia,

when I balanced a little egg of time
in front of a painting
in which that river curled around a bend

Now the poet feeds lines to the reader so she or he can run with the narrator just like a fisherman allows a fish to run with his line. By the end of the next stanza in the poem, Collins hooks the reader. In order to see what is beyond “that river curled around a bend,” click to the following web site and read the entire poem. http://www.bigsnap.com/p-pl-01.html

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