What is the meaning of Billy Collins' poem, Nightclub?
You are so beautiful and I am a fool to be in love with you is a theme that keeps coming up in songs and poems. There seems to be no room for variation. I have never heard anyone sing I am so beautiful and you are a fool to be in love with me, even though this notion has surely crossed the minds of women and men alike. You are so beautiful, too bad you are a fool is another one you don't hear. Or, you are a fool to consider me beautiful. That one you will never hear, guaranteed. For no particular reason this afternoon I am listening to Johnny Hartman whose dark voice can curl around the concepts on love, beauty, and foolishness like no one else's can. It feels like smoke curling up from a cigarette someone left burning on a baby grand piano around three o'clock in the morning; smoke that billows up into the bright lights while out there in the darkness some of the beautiful fools have gathered around little tables to listen, some with their eyes closed, others leaning forward into the music as if it were holding them up, or twirling the loose ice in a glass, slipping by degrees into a rhythmic dream. Yes, there is all this foolish beauty, borne beyond midnight, that has no desire to go home, especially now when everyone in the room is watching the large man with the tenor sax that hangs from his neck like a golden fish. He moves forward to the edge of the stage and hands the instrument down to me and nods that I should play. So I put the mouthpiece to my lips and blow into it with all my living breath. We are all so foolish, my long bebop solo begins by saying, so damn foolish we have become beautiful without even knowing it.
What is the poem "Litant" by Billy Collins about?
A litany (it's litany, not litant) is a kind of prayer, repetetive in nature, and usually taking place at more than one location. The Catholic Stations of the Cross is a kind of litany. It seems to me in this poem, the speaker is in love with the person he is speaking of, and is comparing the beloved to various beautiful and necessary things in his world (bread and knife, goblet and wine). He also seems to be saying that the beloved has many facets or faces (again, bread and knife, goblet and wine) some of which could also be seen as opposites or things which could be construed as antagonists, such as the dew on the grass, and the sun which causes the dew to evaporate. The beloved is complex and mystifying. Perhaps when he says that (I will assume) she is not certain things, he is doubting that, however wonderful she is, she can be all-wonderful. Some of the things he says that she is not are things that are ugly -- he says if she looks in the mirror, she will see that she is not like a pair of boots someone left in the corner. Also, when he says there is no way she is the pine-scented air, it almost feels as if he's trying to convince himself that she couldn't possibly be something he needs as much as the body needs air. He indicates that he, also, has various facets and faces although interestingly, most of the things he compares himself to are fleeting and ephemeral -- the sound of rain, a shooting star, paper blowing down an alley -- whereas the things that he compares the beloved to are tangible and concrete (and aside from ugly things, the other things he says the beloved is not are less tangible and more ephemeral). In the final lines of the poem, he seems to really dwell on the concreteness and permanence of his beloved (like she is an anchoring force for his less tangible self), and he is reassuring her of her central place in his world ("but don't worry..."), but he seems also to be expressing surprise or perhaps awe that she could be so many different things (to him, one supposes). That's my take, anyway. Very nice poem.
Sonnet by Billy Collins analysis/summary help.?
This is an example of a modern sonnet form. The first answerer mentioned that it is satirical in nature, and I would agree. However, there is still plenty of evidence of poetic technique. For example, you have a slant or half rhyme with "seas" and "beans." There is even a sort of half rhyme with "beans" and the last 2 syllables of "Elizabethan." There is an implied metaphor, saying the rules of a Petrarchan or English sonnet include iambic pentameter, but Collins calls those rules bongo drums which must be played or adhered to (although obviously his poem does not). There is sort of an allusion in the line "launch a little ship on love's storm-tossed seas," which reminds me of the famous line written by Christopher Marlowe about Helen of Troy as the "face that launched a thousand ships." There is another slant rhyme of "end" and "pen." The poem actually has one line of iambic pentameter, and that is the final line, if you read it "blow OUT the LIGHTS, and COME at LAST to BED." That may indicate the speaker in the poem, or Collins himself, recognizes that form still has a purpose, so he does not discard it entirely in spite of being more or less a recognized master of free verse himself.
Does anybody know of a poem that is at least 2 minutes long and is appropriate for middle school?
"IF" by Rudyard Kipling If your can keep your head when all about you are loosing their's and blaming it on you. If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, but make allowance for their doubting too. If you can wait and not be tired of waiting.................
What is your favorite quote or line from a poem?
The entire lyrics to the song 'Forever Young' by Alphaville (1992). "Let's dance in style, let's dance for a while Heaven can wait, we're only watching the stars..." "Can you imagine when this race is run? Turn our golden faces into the sun..." And the last verse: "So many adventures couldn't happen today So many songs that we forgot to play So many dreams coming out of the blue Please let them come true" For me it really sums up all of the casual freedom, and whimsicality of just being young. Poetry: "We held hands at the Hollywood bowl, as the summer sun set. We were two, we were three, we were thirteen. And still the sun sets."
The Atlantic Book of British and American Poetry by Dame Edith Sitwell in my opinion is the best anthology of poetry in the English language, and is the one I would recommend to anyone as your first and basic poetry anthology. I could write a long review explaining its virtues, but they will become apparent if you read through the book; here, I will only mention that the selection, which is judiciously balanced between famous standards and neglected gems, virtually teaches you as you read how English language poetry has developed, that many of Dame Edith's introductory remarks include extremely perceptive insights into poetic techniques (and in the case of some later poets, intriguing brief personal comments on them not to be found elsewhere), and that the book is beautifully printed and produced, a joy to read and, like the poems themselves, built to last. That this book is long out of print is an indictment of the value our culture places on poetry. Fortunately, still at this writing available used at not too unreasonable prices. Get it while you can.
Poetry is hard work.It involves intense revision, concentration, and practice, practice, practice.It might mean tearing up your work and starting over - or changing something until it no longer resembles what you had in mind when you started.Not all poetry is rhyming, but it’s the only place for a beginner to begin. Too many budding poets fancy themselves excellent free verse writers, and never move beyond writing terrible poetry. Drill yourself with the basics of rhyme. Study common poetry forms, and get out there and write some. If they’re terrible (and they will be) write more. Anything worth doing is worth doing badly so that eventually you can do it well.But even before you begin writing poetry, begin reading poetry. Read the great poets of the past. Don’t start with pop poetry or modern poetry. Read some translations of Homer’s Odyssey (I recommend Lattimore’s translation.) Read Yeats and Milton, Herbert and Donne, Sidney and Spencer. Read Beowulf. Find out where the heartblood of English lies and make your heart beat to its rhythm.Immerse yourself in poetry, and eventually it will begin to come out of your fingertips.So here are some recommendations for reading:Amazon.com: The Roar on the Other Side: A Guide for Student Poets (9781885767660): Suzanne Underwood Rhodes: BooksAmazon.com: A Poetry Handbook (8601404593888): Mary Oliver: BooksOxford Rhyming Dictionary: Clive Upton, Eben Upton: 9780192801159: Amazon.com: BooksThis last one is every rhyming word in the English language. Well worth the money.I hope this helps.All of which is to say, revise it, tweak it, change it, polish it, and love it.It will come.Cheers!
A poem seizes one emotion and dresses it in an arrangement of words that allows the reader to interpret the meaning in varying perspectives. There is no one meaning in a poemPoems fuse many images into a rope like structure that pulls the reader into its core. The threads in the rope are made up of a number of devices. The usual ones are metaphors, similes, alliteration, rhyme and rhythm, juxtaposition, icons, mythology, analogy and visual landscapes that surpass explanation in common prose. If it borders on writing which is prose and poetry we call that ‘prosetry’Poems are enormously beautiful. A single word can mean so many different things. Regular reading will help you understand how poems are written. There are master craftsmen in poetry and their writings are rich and fulfilling.Every court and country has a poet as its head.To name just a few: Maya Angelou, Robert Frost, ee cummings, Ralph Waldo Emerson, TS Elliot, Spencer, Shakespeare, Charles Bukowski, Rabindranath Tagore, Allen Ginsberg, Paulo Coelho, Pablo Neruda, Dylan Thomas, Bob Dylan and one million others.You know a poem when you see an arrangement of words in a specific form, free flowing, rhyming, rhythmic, visually enchanting, meaningful, and limerick-y. You know the metaphors embedded in a poem when its tentacles reach into strange and edifying stories, places and emotions. You know a poem because it speaks an intricate language in a complex network of cross-currents. You know a poem when you write one , read it back and say to yourself: Wow! did I just write that?Poems are like psalms. They are the language of the soul. You can sing or say a poem. The rhythm is in-built and symphonic. The words hear your inner voice.Poets existed first, before prose came into existence. Poems are the apex of any language. It is the pinnacle of your culture. It is the soul of who you are.Poets are admired, and appreciated all over the world. Poets are also tortured, crucified, butchered and more than not penniless and poor. Yet the art of writing keeps them locked in a timeless cage expressing all the feelings of the world in those few lines.Anyone can be a poet. Everyone is a Poet. Very few recognise this quality given to them. Most are afraid to take ownership of those lines. They know and yet they dont know.Write you first poem today. Start with just one word.Add another two words tomorrow and 4 the day after.You are a poet if you have read this answer and feel your pulse racing.Good luck.