Building With Its Face Blown Off Analysis

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In Billy Collins poem “Building with its face blown off,” Collins success as a writer lies in his ability to use non-violent terms as similes to describe the effects of the violent scenes he is expressing. The poem is easy to understand as it uses stanza in formulating the poem and everyday relationships in describing the sight of the scenes giving the reader the ability to actually see and feel what Mr. Collins is trying to portray. Written in the mid two thousands, this influential imagery depicts a bombed out house and illustrates the effects of war in any town that may be occurring at any time. Items that should only be seen from the inside upon entry to the building are now strewn across the streets. The metaphor used to describe the room wearing only its stripped pajamas is not a subtle one but one that helps set the flow for the rest of the poem. “How suddenly the private is revealed in a bombed-out city, how the blue and white striped / wallpaper of a second story bedroom is now exposed to the lightly falling snow as if the room had…show more content…
“It's like a dollhouse view /as if a child on its knees could reach in /and pick up the bureau, straighten the picture.” (19-21) The poem is an interesting one to me as it describes all these horrible things that are occurring in this one city but in another country it shows a man and woman enjoying a nice day out. “And even farther on, in another country on a blanket under a shade tree, a man pouring wine into two glasses / and a woman sliding out / the wooden pegs of a wicker hamper / filled with bread, cheese, and several kinds of olives. (31-35) It seems Collins is giving the impression that we all can be a little narcissistic when it comes to the travesties happening in the world as long as it is not happening to us then most of us won’t

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