Billy Collins Comparative Work

2047 Words9 Pages
Billy Collins - IOP How does Billy Collins use shifts in his poems to convey a message. Explore how these shifts challenge the reader’s understanding of the poem in the poems ‘Another Reason Why I Don’t Keep a Gun in the House’, ‘Schoolsville’ and ‘Embrace’ Billy Collins is an American poet, known across the world for his work as the American Poet Laureate from 2001 to 2003. His uniquely funny and engaging writing style has been a key factor in his success, with his poems inciting the curiosity of readers from all ages and walks of life. He has experience in teaching, lecturing in highly accredited universities and could be considered to be one of the most famous and enjoyed poets of modern society. Collins often writes on topical issues of society. His poems ‘Another Reason Why I Don’t Keep a Gun in the House’, ‘Schoolsville’ and ‘Embrace’ all continue this style. These poems take everyday topics and make them comical, thus making them meaningful for the reader. He does this by changing one or more key aspects of the poem part way through, the aspect often being tone. Changes of language and structure used also add to this change. ‘Another Reason Why I Don’t Keep a Gun in the House’ could be considered to be one of Collins’ more famous works. He uses a shift from a concrete state of understanding to a ridiculous comical image to share his views on The United States’ controversial gun laws. We, as readers, see that the poem is going to be somehow connected to this topic right from the start of the poem as the title answers the implied question of ‘why don’t you keep a gun in the house?’. Collins’ use of selective language in the title, ‘another’ implies that this is not the only reason and that he has strong feelings towards the topic. The personal pronoun of ‘I’ also compliments the idea that this is his point of view. The first stanza of the poem
Open Document